Using the mission editor

The opening screen:

Click “Make a new mission” and then the radiobuttons, and the Instant Action checkbox if you want instant action:

This shows a 1943 sweep, groundstart (IA button not checked), at dawn etc.

Now pick your aircraft:

Select your attack plane 1 from the Aircraft list and click in the Attack Plane 1 box.

Also enter the number of aircraft in the textbox

I will use a P41C, and there will be six of us:

Attack plane two can be selected in the same way.

Note that the options “Random” and “None” are available at the end of the list of aircraft.

I will choose “None”.

Similarly the Enemy aircraft can be selected, I will go for “Random” and “None”:

Now, the Target and Home Base can be selected from the Target/Home Base list.

This is done in the same way that the aircraft are selected (by clicking on the name and clicking in the boxes).

We are flying from Boxted in a sweep to St Lo.

The other textboxes can be set to zero or whatever value you choose.

They do not seem to affect the offline mission.

The cruise altitude radio button setting seems to determine the altitude, and the values in the four textboxes seem to make no difference.

We do not yet know what the two unknown values (UK#1 and UK#2) are, or what the Mission Date, Weather and Target offset affect (if anything).

All that remains is to give the mission a name, and name the msn file.

Then we can hit the save button!

The file is named 43JS1.msn, and it has been saved in the working directory.

It can be copied and pasted into your Savedata folder, so that you can load it and fly.

Editing an existing file:

Click the Load a “*.msn” file button. A file selector will appear and you can select one.

I will get one from my current Savedata directory:

An intercept from Brandis at Regensburg:

The values have been read, they could be edited, and saved with a new, or the old filename.

Note that all saved files are made in the current directory where the editor program is located.

So, go ahead and make your missions, try them, fly them, make them available to our EAW community!

Experiment and let’s see what those mysterious values really do!

Post feed back at SimHQ!

..but remember

1 Until Gurney cracked the CRC32 checksum none of this would have been possible.

2 You can select anything. I had a repeated “Cannot comply” for a 1944 intercept in a Mosquito.
My support planes were Spitfire XIV- not available that year. Changed them to Spit IX and no worries!

3 Similarly, Home Bases must be sensible choices or you will get a CTD!

4 If you select none flyable planes, then you may need several additional files, cockpit, hangar, “*.flt”, and an appropriate “planes.dat”.
When I loaded my mosquito intercept, everything seemed to be there, but I got a CTD unless the “Squk44.dat” from Charles ECA14 was loaded. Those of you who design campaigns will understand why this file was necessary far more than I do. However, be that as may, but single missions in non-flyable aircraft are now possible.

Enjoy!

Jel

Coromandel Valley

South Australia

June 23^rd 2004