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[SAS~Storebror]

Hi chaps,

Just trying to collect a few thing's I've stumbled upon when trying to get used to the IL-2 Great Battles Mission Editor.

First thing: Getting hands on sample missions.
This is pretty, if not damn, easy in IL-2 Great Battles Series.
You just run the game, participate in the mission of choice, Record a mission track (default: Left CTRL + R) - a second is enough - then quit the game.
You will then find the track saved in a subfolder of the "Tracks" folder, which per default in a Steam IL-2 BoX installation is located at
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\IL-2 Sturmovik Battle of Stalingrad\data\Tracks
For instance, when I've just played an online mission three days ago and wanted to see that mission for later reference, the track folder created would be "multiplayer.2017-12-27_15-56-14_00".
Inside that folder, you will find either the ".mission" file used or the compiled ".msnbin" file.

Second thing: Opening compiled mission files.
Sometimes you don't have the plain text ".mission" file at hands, but only the compiled ".msnbin" file.
No problem.
Run the Mission Editor, which per default in a Steam IL-2 BoX installation is located at
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\IL-2 Sturmovik Battle of Stalingrad\bin\editor\STEditor.exe
Click "File->Open".
Navigate to the folder holding your .msnbin file.
It will not be listed, since the Mission Editor lists only .mission files.
But when you are in the folder holding your .msnbin file, you can just enter it's name with the .msnbin extension, e.g. "yourfinemission.msnbin" and the Mission Editor will open the compiled mission.
When you save it later, you will even get the plain text .mission file back.

Third thing, part 1: Old missions don't open anymore.
With BoX patch 2.006 the Complex Triggers have been changed.
If you have an old .mission file and the Mission Editor shows you an error "Error Loading Mission File" when you try to open it, then do as follows:
Delete the .msnbin file if it's there and if you have the .mission file.
Open the .mission file in a text editor, e.g. Notepad++, and replace all occurances of "CheckEntities" by "CheckPlanes". Save the file.
If you don't have the .mission file or the mission still doesn't open, proceed below...

Third thing, part 2: Old missions desperately don't open anymore.
Sometimes this happens. You have replaced all "CheckEntities" by "CheckPlanes" in your .mission file, but the mission still doesn't open in mission editor. Or you don't even have the .mission file and only have the .msnbin file instead.
There's still a chance...
Open the Mission Editor, click "Tools->Resave All Missions in Folder".
Navigate to the folder that holds your "critical" mission and click OK.
With a little luck, the .mission and/or .msnbin file will be converted successfully and you can open and re-save it to current standards.

To be continued...

Cheers!
Mike

[LuseKofte]

I tried the ME when it was released for public, I became num and have never reopened it

[sniperton]

Congrats, Mike, it's really useful info, a promising prelude to a Happy New Year! 

[SAS~Storebror]

Fourth thing: The world becomes a blue place
So you have successfully opened, maybe edited, and resaved the mission of your choice and when you wanna fly on it, you suddenly find yourself in a world of blue snow.
This happens because with a certain game version, the atmosphere options got a season prefix attached.
Open your .mission file in a text editor (Notepad++ or something similar recommended) and replace lines like

Code: [Select]

CloudConfig = "00_clear_00\sky.ini";with a winter prefix version (because prior to the game update in question, the only map available was Stalingrad Winter):

Code: [Select]

CloudConfig = "winter\00_clear_00\sky.ini";After this change, open your .mission file and re-save it to create a new .msnbin file accordingly.

Fifth thing: Player Enters Plane and Is Kicked Out or Plane Is Destroyed or Goes Underground
Similar thing as before, with a certain update Season Prefixes were introduced.
Open your .mission file and replace the empty Season Prefix line

Code: [Select]

SeasonPrefix = "";with

Code: [Select]

SeasonPrefix = "wi";After this change, open your .mission file and re-save it to create a new .msnbin file accordingly.

[SAS~Storebror]

Long time no news, so... before this gets lost, two important hints for Mission Editor users so you don't waste as much time as I did:

• Check Zones
  Never forget to trigger your Check Zone from another MCU in order to activate it.
  Per default, Check Zones are inactive.
  You need to add a target Link e.g. from a Timer MCU to the Check Zone in order to activate it.
  Attention: A target link from an "Activate" Trigger MCU for initial activation will not work.
  For the initial activation, you have to use another MCU like Timer, Counter or whatever else, but not the "Activate" Trigger.
  Later, when the Check Zone has once been activated, you can use "Deactivate" and "Activate" Trigger MCUs in order to dynamically change the Check Zone activation state.
  But the initial activation has to be made using another MCU but the "Activate" Trigger.
• When you add a "chart" to your airfield in order to make AI taxi to takeoff and parking areas, make sure that there's nothing standing in the way of your planes.
  Small things have big effect: E.g. when there's a campfire touching the side of the runway, AI planes will not takeoff but stop at takeoff "VPP" waypoint instead.
  To make matters worse, in order to see whether an object touches the run- or taxiway, you need to enable the "Camera" mode of Mission Editor, because the runways/taxiways can be slightly off their real position in the GUI Map mode of Mission Editor.

Mike

[chanklaus]

Many thanks for sharing those infos, Mike. Your tips and tricks already helped me in several situations.

I did some mission building for the Sturmovik. But this is definitively something else. I slowly start to get an idea of the logic being behind mission building, but I'm far from actually understanding it.
There are some helpful tutorials out in the internet, which list the features of mission building, the "Rise of Flight" tutorial, for instance. They surely describe the elements of the system in detail, but yet I didn't find anything discussing the logic.
I've downloaded some build-in missions and will try to understand how they are constructed. Maybe it helps me to understand.

Great idea, Mike, to start a mission building thread. There is not too much info about BoX mission building in the internet. If I can contribue I'll do, for sure.

I might even start just right now, with providing links to those tutorials I talked about, in case someone is inspired to start mission building.

Forum Posts:
Il-2 Sturmovik Forum - Mission Making and Mission Editor: https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/forum/92-mission-making-and-mission-editor/

YouTube videos for BoS mission building:
IL2 BOS - Mission Editor: Basics Video 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpjPn7r_0qg
IL2 BOS Mission Editor Tutorial 1 Single Player Mission: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCxQAakozGc
IL2 BOS - Mission Editor: Objects and MCU's Video 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4pxKOTtMmw

Mission Editor Manuals:
RoF Mission Editor Manual (PDF): http://www.xplanefreeware.net/jim/Jims/ROF_Mission_Editor_User_Manual_eng.pdf
IL-2 Sturmovik Mission Editor and Multiplayer Server Manual (PDF): https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/applications/core/interface/file/attachment.php?id=26072

Best greetings and wishes,
chanklaus

[chanklaus]

I've been wrong!

After a brief look at the "IL-2 Sturmovik Mission Editor and Multiplayer Server Manual" I thought that it's basically an updated version of the "RoF Mission Editor Manual". Which it is - but much more detailed than I initially thought.
It will take quite some time, though, to learn how to create missions. The system is pretty complex, with all obstacles and chances resulting from such a complexity.
As soon as I find the time I'll try to think my way through it.
I'm sure there will be lots of questions and problems I'll have to solve.

Best greetings and wishes,
chanklaus

[SAS~Skylla]

What I found to be most important: Test your basic groups or the big thing you want to build will be FUBAR.

This might sound a little obvious, but believe me: Even if that "small" logic group you just built looks good at a glance, there's usually some stupid mistake (forgot to add some link, linked something else wrong) that you will happen to overlook.
What I've also seen happening: Some Links (usually events or reports) sometimes get lost (?) if you don't use nodes between them and further MCU action / link branching. Don't ask me why, but I came across this a couple of times now.

This is especially annoying if you want to use said basic group as a component which gets used multiple times. There's nothing as fun as applying the same fix 10 or 20 times, or linking it together all again ... may it be because of your stupidity or because of ME's.

[JollyJack]

Hi chaps,

Just trying to collect a few thing's I've stumbled upon when trying to get used to the IL-2 Great Battles Mission Editor.

First thing: Getting hands on sample missions.
This is pretty, if not damn, easy in IL-2 Great Battles Series.
You just run the game, participate in the mission of choice, Record a mission track (default: Left CTRL + R) - a second is enough - then quit the game.
You will then find the track saved in a subfolder of the "Tracks" folder, which per default in a Steam IL-2 BoX installation is located at
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\IL-2 Sturmovik Battle of Stalingrad\data\Tracks
For instance, when I've just played an online mission three days ago and wanted to see that mission for later reference, the track folder created would be "multiplayer.2017-12-27_15-56-14_00".
Inside that folder, you will find either the ".mission" file used or the compiled ".msnbin" file.

 ..... To be continued... Cheers! Mike 

thanks for all the info