jboecker / dcs-mission-planner Goto Github PK

If all units of a group are destroyed, the group will stay in the mission.
This will look weird when displayed in the DCS Mission Editor, but does not seem to cause any problems.

It may even be a good idea to leave it as it is, so a mission script can still get the group with Group.getByName -- I do not know enough about the DCS scripting environment to decide this.

The mission planner could show the positions of ground units on the map.
Both red and blue vehicle groups can be visible to no side, blue only, red only, or both.

At mission creation time, decisions must be made about which units show up at all and which side gets to see them. I suggest the following options:

Unit Visiblity: Do not show ground units / Allies only / Show all
[X] Only show units that have "MPMAP" in their group name

When creating an instance, the mission planner could create annotations on the map from trigger zones that are named in a specific way.

This could for example be used to add a rough indication of known enemy positions.

It is possible to save the state of a mission. I have created this issue for now to track what works and what does not.

As of v0.0.1-beta3, this is still experimental and has several limitations:

• Only the state of ground vehicles will be saved
• If the ground vehicle group has multiple waypoints, they will go back to waypoint 1 after the mission is loaded again (probably cannot be fixed)

If you want to try it, use these steps:

• replace the file Scripts\MissionScripting.lua in your DCS: World installation directory with the one provided in scripts\save-mission-state.
• Add Mist 3.2 or higher to your mission.
• Have a way to trigger the code in scripts\save-mission-state\doScript.txt to run in your mission (e.g. with the F10 radio menu). That code snippet will create a MissionState.txt in your \Saved Games\DCS\Logs directory.
• Use the admin tool to select the MissionState.txt and click "Upload Mission State"
• Save the mission again using the admin tool

Before this can be implemented, we need to know how pre-populated ABRIS data is stored in DCS: World mission archives.

Noticed that some of the missions I tried to load are stuck on 'processing mission...' after creating an instance.

Tested with online client and local client.
Mission for example -
https://copy.com/uNH9uQ0BSZNh

Browser debug shows -

status: hashing file... admintool.js:9
status: admintool.js:9
status: reading file... admintool.js:9
status: extracting mission... admintool.js:9
status: processing mission... admintool.js:9
stderr: [string "stdin"]:25726: unexpected symbol near weblua-0.1.5.js:1060
stderr: Parsing failure weblua-0.1.5.js:1060
stderr: [string "stdin"]:86: attempt to index global 'mission' (a nil value) weblua-0.1.5.js:1060
Uncaught SyntaxError: Unexpected token u admintool.js:56
(anonymous function) admintool.js:56
reader.onload

The ability to create a printable summary page with all kinds of mission related information, such as

• Radio Frequencies (Tankers, Airports)
• Flight Plan, ETA for waypoints

I know this is a bit more involved because it involves parsing the liveries folders, but this could be great for virtual squadrons as this way they could add their own personalized aircraft without requiring custom missions or slots for every conceivable member.

Ideal solution would be to parse the liveries folders (both dcs world and saved games), and list the skins based on the type of aircraft, but a workable solution would be the files common dialog that selects the folder of the decription.ini we manually select.

When doing annotation with the blue credentials, the red side can see the annotations that are created.

The Ka-50 has two different navigation systems -- the ABRIS and PVI-800. Both have their own waypoint database.

We need to test what DCS does with the current mission planner behaviour (probably only one of the waypoint databases is affected) and fix the mission planner accordingly.

I've done some tests and it seems that new instances I create and then go into one side and add WPs will not save the new waypoints when I save the mission.

Reproduce:

1. Create new instance from a mission file. (I Created Allies only ground forces view)
2. Copy the Links that are created and close the Admin Tool window. (If the windows is kept open and I do not need to reload the mission file, the issue does not reproduce).
3. Change WPs on one of the sides links.
4. Go back to the Admin Tool and enter the existing instance admin link.
5. Upload the save mission file.
6. Save the new updated mission.
7. Opened in mission editor, WPs not updated.

Currently, the mission planner is only concerned with the waypoints of playable aircraft.

This could be extended to AI-controlled units (including ground units). For those units, the waypoints must not be deleted and then re-created, as this will delete things like advanced waypoint actions.

It also needs new user interface elements, as deleting waypoints and interaction with the "Pull Route" feature will be impossible with AI units.

Several people are already running their own instances of the server software, which was something I did not anticipate in the initial design. Currently, connecting to an instance requires the (hardcoded) server host name and port, the instance ID, and one of three passwords (red/blue/admin).

The UI to enter this information is already slightly cumbersome with two pieces of information (instance ID / password), as these have to be entered into separate fields. Issue #8 will involve an external tool that needs to connect to the server.
Its one advantage is that if an instance is created without a password, the only piece of information required to connect is the instance ID, which can be remembered.

From the users point of view, the instance ID / password combination should be replaced by a single string that contains all information needed to connect.

It seems natural to build everything into the websocket URL. An instance asdf on the server dcs-mission-planner.herokuapp.com on port 1234 using SSL with blue password violet, red password crimson and admin password overlord would use the following URLs:

wss://blue:[email protected]:1234/instance/asdf
wss://red:[email protected]:1234/instance/asdf
wss://admin:[email protected]:1234/instance/asdf

I need to test whether all major browsers (and the server framework) can do HTTP authentication over websockets.

The planner by itself is an excellent tool.
But when we plan mission, only the one who planned the routes can actually see them and if you publish the link to see your side planning whoever joins can change things by mistake and without intent.

If there are links for spectators for each side it will be easier to show the routes in a briefing to users we don't want to be able to change things, only allow the capability of showing active route and that's it.

Just like a simple marker would work.

We started using the annotations to indicate certain places on the map.
But each time we create a new instance we need to add new annotations.

If you draw a big circle over a smaller one, there is no way to delete the first, small circle -- you have to delete the big circle first.

I am marking this as wontfix for now, because I see annotations as a tool to be used sparingly and I also don't know of a way to fix this that does not involve overcomplicating the user interface.

Hi, haven't touched this software in a while, but.... would it be possible to add new scenarios? As it is, it only works correctly with missions in the Caucasus.

• different shapes
• different colors
• add text

Currently, annotations only have a single attribute (the label), which is assigned on creation and cannot be edited.

There should be user interface logic that allows to edit an existing annotation. The easiest way is probably to do this in the context menu that is already used to delete an annotation; if the edit elements should appear in the sidebar, we need to introduce the concept of a selected/highlighted annotation.

Once that functionality is implemented, it should be trivial to add a color attribute to annotations.

Hello, As I try to launch the tool and upload the mission file, the URL for ".../dcs-mission-planner/admintool.html" goes stuck on "opening websocket..." and won't proceed any further.

While the mission planner on it self is an excellent tool, adding LotATC to work with in running campaigns with the mission planner takes it up to a whole new level.

LotATC works in a way that whoever is an ATC controller on it, will only see to the range of his radars (Any radars, even a Shilka's radar).
When planning routes and generally tactic and strategy in the mission planner, it is crucial to see the threat areas first to be able to plane around certain threats, and secondly to know when you are visible in the enemy's radars.

LotATC example -
http://lotatc.dartsite.org/attachments/download/28/Capture.JPG
www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCpPCjThfZE‎