OK..I could use some help and/advice on getting the Syria - Cold War era mission file setup. Most parameters are set via the Foothold Config.lua and here is what I’ve got set so far:
Difficulty Setting default = medium
AI Plane skill = random
AI Ground skill = high
Static targets = true (this places some buildings and things that need to be bombed)
Era = Coldwar
Weapons Mods = false (this is directed to be false for Warehouse Logistics)
Death penalty = -300 credits / -300 rank (I upped this from 100)
Remove SA-10, SA-11, SA-15, and Pantsir (replaced by older SAMs)
CTLD crates/units are no longer free
A-10 is NOT invisible to RED enemy planes
Logistics/supply is done via warehouse + zone supplies only
Neutral zones start without weapons, you must bring or wait for AI delivery
Blue AI will NOT deliver supplies, it will only be done by the player
Shop setting/prices have been adjusted higher
20, – Smoke markers
20, – flare markers
100, – Illumination bomb
1000, – Dynamic CAP (+500)
100, – Dynamic Tanker (Drogue) (-900)
100, – Dynamic Tanker (Boom) (-900)
1000, – Dynamic CAS (+500)
1000, – Dynamic Decoy (+500)
1000, – Dynamic SEAD (+500)
1000, – Dynamic Bomb run (+500)
1000, – Dynamic building Strike (+500)
1500, – Cruise Missile Strike (+700)
500, – Resupply friendly Zone (+300)
2000, – Fully Upgrade Friendly Zone (+1000)
500, – MQ-9 Reaper JTAC mission
0, – Jtac 9line AM
0, – Jtac 9line FM
1000, – Jam radars at zone
100, – Deploy armor (for combined arms)
100, – Deploy artillery (for combined arms)
50, – Deploy recon group (for combined arms)
150, – Deploy air defence (for combined arms)
2000, – Emergency capture zone (+1500)
300, – Intel on enemy zone (+200)
500, – Add infantry squad to zone
2000, – Add Hawk/Nasams system to a zone
3000, – Upgrade zone to logistic center (+1000)
1000, – Resupply warehouse with 50 (+500)
1500, – Add armor group to a zone (+500)
5000, – Add Patriot system to zone (+45000)
3000, – Unlock extra upgrade slot
1000, – Deploy FARP
10000, – Add HIMARS to a zone (+7500)
Basically I made it more expensive to lean on the economy system to get things done that we should be doing. I’m amenable to changing these. Patriot should be priced out of ability to do so. All of the helpful things like SEAD, CAP, Strike, etc just cost more money. I reduced the price of tankers..I figure if people want to have a tanker..that would normally be something a mission would have anyway.
Shop rank requirements remain the same (the more rank, the more access to shop items)
Flight time reward starts after 5 minutes. 2 points per minute rewarded..designed to reward logistics pilots. All helicopters will get the reward (even attack helos) simply because flying helos is hard..so you should be rewarded. C-130 and free Hercules also get rewarded.
Increased FARPS that load from the save file from 3 to 6.
Restricted weapons list..I’m assuming these items that I added – to will not be available in the warehouses or arming menus. If you see something that should be added/deleted let me know..I think this has to be set prior to kicking off the mission or else there are downstream ramifications.
I’m not against the reduction per se but this is an unlock. Once you paid for tankers they stay forever and you can move them around. Meaning the 1000 was a one off purchase.
NASAMS, IRIS-T etc should be too modern it should all be Hawks and Stingers. HIMARS also too modern we already have a very good M270 from that era (but without the super smart missiles). Also makes moving around the artillery guns with logistics helicopters more meaningful.
I don’t think it needs blocking. This is the missile for the Gazelle and I think it would be a lot of fun to shoot SACLOS missiles in a less modern threat environment. But this is a bit of a ’ spirit of the rules’ suggestion as it is a 90s model.
I suggest that we maybe disable F10 navigation and seeing threats on the F10 map. To really drive home the challenges of the era. Also, perhaps disable "unrestricted Satnav’ to prevent making things too easy for 4th gen and other relatively modern equipment in the scenario.
I don’t think it’s blocked. Only the weapons with the – in front are blocked.
The game may configure it that way..I’m not sure what all overrides what in the config.lua..there are other settings in other files that I think set the parameters that aren’t as clearly optional as what appears in the config.lua
Yeah and you’ll notice that things like MK bombs aren’t on that list which makes me think that there are other files that have the default things for the Cold War scenario. I will be able to test it before I put it on the server… might take another day or two of understanding the parameters.
And whatever things we can’t change in the menu settings… I think we have demonstrated to be a pretty reliable group… so things like the Reaper JTAC can just be things we don’t select from the menu. Like I said other settings may prevent the Predator from even being there. I sense a good opportunity for something like the OV-10 to mark targets with smoke rockets..!
FWIW, I tested the latest version of Foothold Syria this morning, made the recommended changes to equipment, and that fixed the issue with the UH-60L DAP door gun ammo. But I’m completely cool if you chose not to do that.
Just don’t expect ice cold Buds on any of your CSARs though.
Depends if we do data export for the map or tacview, as that would work around that?
I’m all for making it harder but we don’t want to just end up with harsh language as our primary weapon. Especially in the dark.
For me the main enemy will be the guy typing right now in the F-14A or F-5E cockpits sitting there completely confused and wondering where all that god mode nice data feed went, while I shoot you all down.
I’m open minded though, so I say we give it a go and then see how it goes first.
Was the AI ground skill high in the Persian Gulf? If not, I’d recommend going back to medium, they were quite deadly if you had to get close to deal with them.
The CTLD units I though had a points cost in Persian Gulf, just not a high one from what I recall.
If I am reading that correctly, it will be all on us to plus up our bases? Excellent.
I might leave the CAP at the normal price, I think the only time we really ever used it was when we only had 1-2 people and Red was attacking across the map. Then again we had such a point surplus usually, might not matter.
I’d bump up the pricing on the upgrading a zone to a logistics center if I understand how that works correctly. The logistics centers now function as a warehouse so it doesn’t need resupply. If that is correct, I’d go 10K or so points so it’s a big event when we do so.
I might suggest just removing the threats from the F10, and letting people at least have it for navigation. Real world we’d all have regular practice in that era’s navigation techniques, and some mission planning with maps, etc. I think that’s a good balance of difficulty in finding the bad guy, and people being frustrated figuring out WTF they even are to get into the fight.
Is there anything to help the day/night server reset? Like some sort of thing that restarts the server every 24hrs automatically, so if you have to be away then you don’t have to worry about it? I know there are all sorts of frameworks for unattended dcs servers, but really only saying this if something super simple is out there that works. I know nothing about the DCS area though. A windows task to restart the server, start the DCS server and gubbins automatically I can help with if needed but wondering if there isn’t something already to tick.
Fair, I’d leave the final decision with Beach. There is a way to put marks on a kneeboard that will perfectly tell you where you are. But I wouldn’t want to force it on anyone. I’ll make it a personal challenge to stay away from F10.
In looking at this a little more..there was probably no reason to – out the weapons in that list up there. Remember..this mission template is the same for modern/cold-war and just uses a syntax change in the config file to obviously call another lua or setup that probably sets period appropriate assets. My guess is that the weapons list was more to tailor the modern to remove some weapons that users may not want in the modern campaign either.
Flare markers are cheap! My impression was that the data export for the map view was going to be more for like for people to see what was going on when they weren’t online. I suppose the 2D players could have a map open on a second monitor. I’m not sure what level of “Cold War” we are going for anyway…I mean I guess we will have the -C Hornet maybe with -A type weapons or some limitations like that. I’ll really have to test the .miz file and see what is offered by default. I do think the lack of F10 view and some things like TACAN navigation might cause people to coalesce around the “plan and execute an attack together” that it seemed many were keen to angle towards based on the debrief comments from the PG campaign.
Yeah..I was surprised to see it defaults to EXCELLENT whereas the RED AIR defaults to RANDOM. That would maybe explain the laser beam accuracy of some of those convoys with Annie Oakley gunners. I thought backing off to HIGH would be better..but we could go one notch down from that too (?).
Maybe. I hope. We’ll see. I don’t have time to test the changes to config file today..I’m just making some big ones and I’ll see what is presented. I’ve got to get some sleep as I’m on the night shift again tonight.. It is a bit of a struggle comprehending the Foothold instructions because the manual references some changes that you do via the Mission Editor that appear to no longer be the case…instead the changes are done inside the LUA files themselves.
Does Syria support use of the NS430? I might just bolt that thing to the top of my C-101 and drop bombs and fire rockets the entire campaign.
Yeah..that is one issue with varying levels of comfort and proficiency. I mean..I could just set the .miz file to not enforce the server-side difficulty settings (I believe that is an option)..so people could use labels and F10 and all of that. Of course then you have people playing on uneven playing fields..even though we are all on the same team…
There is because I’ve seen it on other servers. I assume it is a script that runs from the .miz file. Not sure how easy that is to just throw in there..I’ll explore it.
Honestly something as simple as a mouse click sender utility set for every 10 hours would work..just hover it over the “restart” button on the server Web GUI and it would happen. The only issue with THAT simple of a plan is that it wouldn’t give an in-game warning like I have seen some of those mission scripts do: “SERVER WILL RESET IN 15 MINUTES” “10 MINUTES” “2 MINUTES”..
I’ll check into those. They are probably prebuilt and might just throw into the directory. I know nothing about these .miz files and scripts..so learning on the fly..
I don’t know if they’re okay with being bothered, but @Wes and @Franze had restart functions on their server Hollo Pointe North that worked even from F10. I don’t know if its possible to harness their magic?
My impression was that the data export for the map view was going to be more for like for people to see what was going on when they weren’t online. I suppose the 2D players could have a map open on a second monitor. I’m not sure what level of “Cold War” we are going for anyway…I mean I guess we will have the -C Hornet maybe with -A type weapons or some limitations like that. I’ll really have to test the .miz file and see what is offered by default. I do think the lack of F10 view and some things like TACAN navigation might cause people to coalesce around the “plan and execute an attack together” that it seemed many were keen to angle towards based on the debrief comments from the PG campaign.
The only issue with THAT simple of a plan is that it wouldn’t give an in-game warning like I have seen some of those mission scripts do: “SERVER WILL RESET IN 15 MINUTES” “10 MINUTES” “2 MINUTES”..
