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FSXA Mission with changeable parameters

MEPaquette

MEPaquette

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ca-ontario
I have never created a mission yet, and have not yet read the SDK. But before I spend a whole lot of time on my "proposed mission" I would like to know if it is possible to create a mission where the start point can be easily changed.
I am working on a yacht which has a smaller watercraft that can be used to go where the yacht can't.
My mission would start at the point where I stop my previous "flight" with the small watercraft as the "pilotable aircraft" and the yacht being either an AI of a static object in the position and direction where I left it in my last flight.
So when I want to switch from yacht to watercraft, I would record the position and direction at the end of my "flight", end my flight, go in and change mission starting parameter and start my mission were my flight ended. And my mission would end when I would return to the yacht.

Michel E Paquette
 
Great question! The simple answer is no. You cannot change it to a random place where your last mission ended.

That said, if you limit your options to a few–even many–spots it is possible. You would have to designate each "ending point" with an area object (a box in space) and set a proximity trigger to activate a Dialog Action that would tell you the name of the follow-on mission from that space. Of course you would need a mission associated with each spot.

There MAY be another way of doing this- to actually place it randomly–if you are up to editing files. When you save a mission it writes the WX, SBP and FLT files to the Saved Flights folder. I suppose you could then go into the FLT file and edit the aircraft identification to the "dingy" aircraft. However, I have no idea what's in the mission SPB file (its binary) so this might be impossible.

How I would do it:

I'd put it all in one mission. I would designate a few spots to stop the yacht. There is a Mission function used for the "pilot" to swap planes.

SPOILER The FSX mission where you pick up the Japanese "businessman" in a helo and then go chasing him in a lear jet, utilizes this function.

Several small boats would be placed - but not activated - at these spots. Arrive at a spot and a proximity trigger activates the small boat and transfers you to it - continue the rest of the mission from there. Just a suggestion.

Good luck - OPT mission building is a steep learning curve. The tutorial in the SDK help file is good. That said, there are third party applications that use an easer interface. I use FSX Mission Creator now (free demo) but for years did tithe OPT way.
 
Thanks for your answer hangar32. I was afraid that it might not boe so easy.
And that mission you are talking about, I think I tried to go thru it once a long time ago. It is familiar. But remembered more tutorial 4 were you learn to taxi with 3 different planes.
When all is said and done, I will be looking at Mission Building at a latter date.
At least now I know what is and is not possible.

Yesterday, I came up with another possibility. When I get to a location I want to switch, just go to menu and change aircraft and use AI placement tool to place my yacht as an AI beside my dinghy.
But when I went the the SDK to get the traffic placement tool, I ran into a small problem. After I modified the dll.xml file in my FSX folder as instructed, I open my FSX and I cant't fine the "Tools->Traffic Toolbox" menu they are talking about. I don't know if I did something wrong, or if its a Window 7 thing

Michel
 
Hi Michel,

Sorry for not getting back sooner - I was finishing up a product for sale (see the link in my signature) and had a prostatectomy…of the two, the prostratecomy was the "least fun". ;)

OK - so first there is a bit of a difference between AI aircraft and AI boats. I know you can create an AI "aircraft" that is really a boat - I tried when developing my last project, Pilate's Ghost". That said, I had given the boat a specific activation point and a number of waypoints to follow. (BTW, it didn't actually work out - the way an AI airplane/boatfollows the way points gets a bit wonky - it kept on grounding itself. I ended up using a recorded "flight".)

I never dug into SDK's traffic tools. OPT mad my brain hurt enough. However, I did use Traffic 360 (Just Flight) to create AI flights which interfaces with FSX's AI aircraft engine. If I recall, AI aircraft require an airport at each end and a round trip flight plan. AI boats are more flexible - you can start them anywhere. The following links are the keys: AI Boat Traffic for Dummies (Like Me!) by Doug Linn/RTMM and Flight Simulator X - Boat Traffic Compiler However, this is not something that you can "compile on the fly" - not sure how you would use the AI placement tool to achieve this effect - hopefully somebody more failure with the Traffic Tools can answer.

As far as getting traffic tools to work (they show up just under the OPT on he tools menu) all I can say is look at every command, every letter, every period and comma in avery file necessary. The smallest thing off and it just doesn't show. I recall it took me several tries and many, many rereads of the instructions. How did I do it? Beats me. One tme it just worked and I didn't touch it afterwards.

Sorry I wasn't able to help more.
 
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