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[Wing Walker]

How do you create a fully functional air base, for both taking off and landing AI, but on random generally level terrain?

I am trying to model a WW2 makeshift dug up air strip on random terrain, where I can have ai aircraft take off from and land at.

I can find generally even terrain, but I've run into problems with creating an airstrip that can have planes land on it because they have to be set to land at something with an air field icon or aircraft carrier.

I can put the test runway down, but with "generally flat" terrain there are dips and rises, the test runway does not sit evenly and aircraft will sink or float over the ground where you put it.  Also, taxiing aircraft with hit a high spot and bounce into the air, or a low spot where they sink.

I can make aircraft take off with no problem on any terrain that is generally level without having to be on a test runway with setting them to taxi and then to take off in the direction I want.  They roll on the terrain just fine.

Something I tried is using the test landing wires as an air base since they have the airbase icon.

That gives other problems though.

First the wires are visible, and the aircraft do not line up with the center of the wires since the icon is on the side. 

Also, it creates problems for aircraft to taxi out and take off, they act like they are on an Aircraft Carrier, and will not form up right to taxi, and do not start parked side by side, but in flight formation.

If you attach/set them to the wires/air base, they are formed up on the wires in a square, like when you spawn on a carrier deck.

Why can't we just have an airbase, or test air strip, that is nothing but a dot and has no physical form?  Then you can set anything to land anyway you want and use all the plates and objects to build your air strip.

Anyway, like everything else with mission building, the seemingly small things are what end up driving you nuts.

[genXgamer]

"Anyway, like everything else with mission building, the seemingly small things are what end up driving you nuts".

Too true, experienced many times.

I have to create 2 airfields on the Alpen map hopefully I don't run into any troubles.

[Vampire_pilot]

Mission and airfield building is a worthwhile pastime.
What modpack are you using? Details may differ.

Do you know that M4T has a specific section for "templates" of all kinds? Numerous have "spec built" airfields in random areas (namely Kurfurst's) which you can use whole or in parts for your own needs.
https://www.mission4today.com/index.php?name=Downloads&c=95

I am trying to model a WW2 makeshift dug up air strip on random terrain, where I can have ai aircraft take off from and land at.

I can find generally even terrain, but I've run into problems with creating an airstrip that can have planes land on it because they have to be set to land at something with an air field icon or aircraft carrier.

That's the correct solution, the auxiliary airfields in the static ships.
They are like a "carrier deck" which can be placed anywhere on flat ground. The operations can work like on a static carrier, but you are not forced to use it like that, depending what you want to do and which plate (small or very wide) you are using.
In no case can you or AI taxi over the edge of such a plate, it will cause a crash.

I can make aircraft take off with no problem on any terrain that is generally level without having to be on a test runway with setting them to taxi and then to take off in the direction I want.  They roll on the terrain just fine.

AI can take off anywhere "flat" but player can't.
Airfields are (usually!) flattened in the map building phase, every other "regular" terrain is very bumpy, even if it appears flat (realistic take-off makes you feel this, if turned off, you won't feel it, but you will also not collide with ground at all)

There once was a mod called Zuti's friction mod, somewhere under 4.10. It became incompatible to 4.12 game versions. If a map was built by someone using this, it can be that airfields are not properly treated and now bumpy as hell without the mod. In this case also an invisible auxiliary "ship" saves the day to "flatten the place" (They should be called Seabee objects really.... ). The airfield positions can still be used normally, no forced use of the "carrier" runway point.

On such an auxiliary plate, you never *have to* attach the carrier point to take off if you do not want to!
You can always make planes take off by using "taxi to take off" waypoints to line them up initially (under any 4.12 based game)


I understand your main problem now is landing.
That is a bit uncomfortable, as here *only* the auxiliary carrier strip attachment gets you a well defined result. After stop, the planes will "disappear", just like on a carrier, no taxi to parking.

You can use several aux strips on top of each other. One big invisible base to flatten the take off area -> take off by taxi and such
Another small invisible strip and there an attached landing, that defines the landing strip, should the big plate have to be positiond "off-line".

[WxTech]

I find the most reliable method to obtain properly level ground so that runway textures don't have undulations or weird gaps is to open map_h.tga, and at the place where the field is to lie, paint all pixels in the immediate area so as to have the same RGB value.

The same goes for train stations, at least when the large "vozkal" texture is in use.

[Wing Walker]

"Oh, I will just place a little landing strip here real quick..."
Yeah right.

It seems to be a problem with where you place the test airfield, and how you save your progress.

Sometimes i flew the mission and my changes were not there.

I got everything to work in an acceptable way for my story line, but then I moved the invisible test airfield from the right to the left...

... and that apparently screwed up everything and it took me most of a day to get it to work again.

Its all voodoo, so I have no idea why it worked the way it did, then didn't work, then worked again.

So...
I made a dirt air strip in the desert with the runway and parking plates.

It seemed to matter the order in which I added things to it. 

1st I had to lay the test airfield and then the home base for red team, but it seemed to only work after moving it allover the place and rebuilding each time testing different locations.

Then Saved and restarted the game...

2nd I added the stationary A/C and a stationary a/c spawn point to the parking area, this had to be done after you set up the airfield, it seemed to not work otherwise...

Then saved in a new name, and restarted the game...

3rd I laid the emergency wires down at an extended end of the strip where you wouldn't spawn in or taxi around an see well.  I also made it be a neutral or "white" airfield, not red or blue.  It being close to the red airfield/home base seems to matter.

Then attached my landing a/c to lad at it at the far end of the runway.

then saved it under a new name and restarted the game

Now it works, for now.

[Uzin]

There is also another solution to airfield friction mod, namely, BlankFieldPlate_:
https://www.mediafire.com/file/jydq25m5rlqtn6l/BlankFieldPlate.7z/file
See e.g. here:
https://www.sas1946.com/main/index.php/topic,52136.msg573025.html#msg573025

[Sharkzz]

Heya genX m8, Alpen map , hope it is interlaken ............
hooroo
Sharkzz