Custom Campaign Question

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Custom Campaign Question

Post by Snapper » 2009-09-18 11:37:33

Hello,
my name is Snapper and I'm flying the viper in AF for a couple of years now. I'm a member of the 1st Virtuel Fighter Wing. Yesterday I read a "HowTo" about customizing campaigns with the mission editor at our forum. The HowTo says that you can simply do that by renaming the save2.cam to save2.tac.
When I do so I can add or delete squadrons in the korea or balkan theaters. But if I want to do so with a ODS theater the map in the mission editor is empty. There are no cities, no airports and so on.

I simply want to add one or two F16 squadrons to another airport. How can I do that within ODS campaign? I'm currently useing ODS100 with Allied Forces.

Here is the HowTo:
The complete procedure:
1. Backup the saveX.cam you want to edit.
2. Rename saveX.cam to saveX.tac
3. Fire up FalconAF.exe and open the saveX.tac in the TE editor.(Don't click on the CAMPAIGN button on the main UI or the game will CTD)
4. Make whatever changes (add/eleiminate units/squadrons) you want with the TE editor. But remember, you have to do all the editing in the TE Editor in ONE STEP, i.e., don't save the file and then try to come back to it later to edit more.
5. Save the tac file and exit the game.
6. Rename SaveX.tac to SaveX.cam
7. Start the corresponding new campaign.( if u changed the save0.cam then start rolling fire; if save1.cam then : iron fortress; if save2.cam then tiger spirit)
8. Set the priorities. DON'T CLICK THE START CAMPAIGN BUTTON.
Just exit and there will be an AUTO SAVE. CAM file. (Or manually save it at 09 00 00, and there will be also a SAVE-DAY 1 09 00 00.CAM file, it's the same).
9. Replace the edited saveX.cam with the original one. Overwrite it.
10. Re-enter the campaign from the CAMPAIGN SAVED FILE ( i.e. AUTO SAVE. CAM or SAVE-DAY 1 09 00 00.CAM that have just been created in step 8) NOT STARTING A NEW ONE.
Done.


Greetings

Snapper

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Re: Custom Campaign Question

Post by Snake Man » 2009-09-18 13:11:24

First of all, you are using outdated version of ODS, check the forum here for latest one.

Second is that I have never copied saveX.cam to te_new.tac, I don't think it works like that, at least I have all the years creating it by importing the objectives from CSV file.

Do you have link for this tutorial in your forums?
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Re: Custom Campaign Question

Post by Snapper » 2009-09-18 14:36:48

Hi Snake Man,
thx for your reply. I can't post a link to the post because it's only readable for our users. I post a copy instead.

Here is the complete post:
I collected a lot of news, workarounds and tricks about Falcon and I thought could be useful to share them with other 1ST pilots.
To give a label to this series, "Falcon's pills" sounded good to me.
-----------------------------------------------------
MODIFYNG CAMPAIGNS
Never thought to add squadrons in some Airbases near Flot in a Campaign?
Or eliminate/add some unit?
With this trick u can add / eliminate everything, and with "everything" I mean also new squadrons of every aircraft type at any base, both hostiles or friendlies.

But there is a warning: THAT'S THE MOST COMPLICATED TRICK OF MY COLLECTION, adapt only for extreme modders.
So you are adviced: if u 'r unsure of what u'r doing, or do'nt want run the risk to ruin one of your campaigns, or u'r awkward in modding, just leave it !
As Arpad said once, I do'nt take responsability for anything
;-))

This trick has also 2 limitations:
1) it works only on NEW campaign, and NOT on ongoing campaigns;
2) At some stage, u have to save something immediately, as explained further, or u'll not see SAM's in the modified camp.
3) You have to feel at ease in building TEs (see my pills #16 and #17)
The good news is that if u follow exactly the instructions, IT WORKS!


First of all, let's remember the basics.
In each camp folder there are 3 files SAVEX. CAM files, where
the X can be 0, 1 or 2 with the following meanings:
save0.cam =rolling fire
save1.cam =iron fortress
save2.cam =tiger spirit
These files are the default campaign status at their start and their content does'nt change .

Then u can have ( it depends if u have saved an ongoing campaign or not ) the following files:
AUTO SAVE. CAM
which is the file created by Falcon when u just exit an ongoing campaign;

and a file similar to this one:
SAVE-DAY 1 16 31 27.CAM
which is the file created by Falcon when u MANUALLY saved a campaign arrived, in the example, at day 1, time 16:31:27

Let's start!

Of course, just make sure, before starting the trick procedure, to have the campaign folder backed up.

The complete procedure:
1. Backup the saveX.cam you want to edit.
2. Rename saveX.cam to saveX.tac
3. Fire up FalconAF.exe and open the saveX.tac in the TE editor.(Don't click on the CAMPAIGN button on the main UI or the game will CTD)
4. Make whatever changes (add/eleiminate units/squadrons) you want with the TE editor. But remember, you have to do all the editing in the TE Editor in ONE STEP, i.e., don't save the file and then try to come back to it later to edit more.
5. Save the tac file and exit the game.
6. Rename SaveX.tac to SaveX.cam
7. Start the corresponding new campaign.( if u changed the save0.cam then start rolling fire; if save1.cam then : iron fortress; if save2.cam then tiger spirit)
8. Set the priorities. DON'T CLICK THE START CAMPAIGN BUTTON.
Just exit and there will be an AUTO SAVE. CAM file. (Or manually save it at 09 00 00, and there will be also a SAVE-DAY 1 09 00 00.CAM file, it's the same).
9. Replace the edited saveX.cam with the original one. Overwrite it.
10. Re-enter the campaign from the CAMPAIGN SAVED FILE ( i.e. AUTO SAVE. CAM or SAVE-DAY 1 09 00 00.CAM that have just been created in step 8) NOT STARTING A NEW ONE.
Done.

Steps 8, 9 and 10 are essential for the trick to work.

Practical example
KOREA folder.
Back up save0.cam and rename save0.cam to save0.tac.
Open save0.tac with mission builder in tactical engagement.
Add a squadron of EF2000 to Seoul AB (It was named the 1031 fighter squadron).
Save and exit.
Rename save0.tac to save0.cam and enter the campaign (New-Rolling fire-Seoul AB-1031 Fighter Squadron).
The campaign isn't running correctly right now, but do'nt bother, just exit and let the autosave function save the update.
Then replace the adjusted save0.cam by the original one.
Re-enter the campaign ( by manually saved file or by auto save), a redeployment message came up: redeployed to Sunwon AB, just south of Seoul.
And campaign engine will assign EF2000s BARCAP missions, with 8 slammers and 2 Asraams!

Notes:
1)The campaign save file doesn't save objects data, so there will be quite a lot of mess-up before the final step. However everything will be fine in the end.
2) After renaming the edited .tac file to .cam file and entering the camp (it's the moment when the camp is still messed up), the SAMs will show up on the map for just a few seconds, and then they'll disappear. If you save the camp file AFTER the SAMs have disappeared, the SAMs won't show up either later. So make sure you save the campaign BEFORE the SAMs disappear.
3) IMPORTANT, REPEATED : after you replace the edited save0.cam with the original save0.cam, enter the campaign through the autosaved file (or through the manually saved file , doesn't make any difference), NOT STARTING A NEW ONE.
The idea is that we create a save file that makes the campaign engine thinks reinforcements (like the squadron you added) arrived after the campaign started.
4) The autosave has it's own separate campaign file. Replacing or not replacing the original file would have no bearing or effect on the saved campaign file.
But u have to replace it if u want start a new NORMAL campaign
I know about the release of 0.7 but some guys of my squad mean that the 100 release is more stable. I told something about importing csv files, how can I do that? As I said I only need 2 or only 1 F16 Squadron at another airbase.

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Re: Custom Campaign Question

Post by derStef » 2009-09-18 14:41:48

these steps lead you into the danger zone... i wouldn't do that.

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Re: Custom Campaign Question

Post by Snapper » 2009-09-18 16:12:17

Ok,
is it the right way to edit an existing ODS campaign via Tacedit? I read a bit about that at the wiki pages but can't find a "HowTo" to add squadrons. I found only ground units.

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Re: Custom Campaign Question

Post by derStef » 2009-09-18 16:42:43

Snapper wrote:Ok,
is it the right way to edit an existing ODS campaign via Tacedit? I read a bit about that at the wiki pages but can't find a "HowTo" to add squadrons. I found only ground units.
yes. but don't use a running campaign. use always the base save1,2,0.cam file. to add squadrons it works the same way. make sure that the unit flags are set to parent (32).

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Re: Custom Campaign Question

Post by Snapper » 2009-09-18 23:27:58

Okay that works, can somebody tell me how I can add squadron patches? How do I find the right number of the patch in Taceditor?

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Re: Custom Campaign Question

Post by Snake Man » 2009-09-18 23:59:36

I know about the release of 0.7 but some guys of my squad mean that the 100 release is more stable.
Well its out dated version, we don't support it anymore. Also this is the first time I hear it would be more stable.
I told something about importing csv files, how can I do that?
The normal export/import of objectives from saveX.cam to te_new.tac file.
I can't post a link to the post because it's only readable for our users. I post a copy instead.
That text seems to be quite fishy, dunno where its gathered from. Like I said, I have never even heard before that someone just copys saveX.cam to .tac file.
is it the right way to edit an existing ODS campaign via Tacedit? I read a bit about that at the wiki pages but can't find a "HowTo" to add squadrons.
Yes, with TacEdit. Download the PMC Korean Campaigns and take a look at the TCL scripts there.

I'll add simple adding a squadron page to our wiki when I get around to restore Tacedit from my backups. I don't want to write the tutorial from memory as I most likely would have to go back and change menu/file typos then.
can somebody tell me how I can add squadron patches? How do I find the right number of the patch in Taceditor?
That start to be bit too generic editing question for this ODS area. You should use forum search, there is multiple hits for squadron patch so I'm sure its been already covered.
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Re: Custom Campaign Question

Post by derStef » 2009-09-19 11:06:00

Snapper wrote:Okay that works, can somebody tell me how I can add squadron patches? How do I find the right number of the patch in Taceditor?
man, what a useless sh!t... keep conentrated on the real important things, man.

regards
Stef

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Re: Custom Campaign Question

Post by Sherlock » 2009-09-19 18:11:18

derStef wrote:
Snapper wrote:Okay that works, can somebody tell me how I can add squadron patches? How do I find the right number of the patch in Taceditor?
man, what a useless sh!t... keep conentrated on the real important things, man.

regards
Stef
Stef,
what is useless to you may not be useless to him. I suggest you keep your personal opinions to yourself.
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Re: Custom Campaign Question

Post by derStef » 2009-09-19 23:11:43

Sherlock wrote:
derStef wrote:
Snapper wrote:Okay that works, can somebody tell me how I can add squadron patches? How do I find the right number of the patch in Taceditor?
man, what a useless sh!t... keep conentrated on the real important things, man.

regards
Stef
Stef,
what is useless to you may not be useless to him. I suggest you keep your personal opinions to yourself.

hahahahahahahahahahahah............................... then read YOUR sig in furgs, YOU hillbilly.

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Re: Custom Campaign Question

Post by Snake Man » 2009-09-20 05:43:43

derStef, watch your manners, this is not your average flaming forum where you can post anything that pops into your mind.
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Re: Custom Campaign Question

Post by derStef » 2009-09-20 11:21:23

Snake Man wrote:derStef, watch your manners, this is not your average flaming forum where you can post anything that pops into your mind.
I'm not talking to you dude, so I also do not want any kind of flaming. i just wanted to note that mr sherlick should whatch his manners, before he starts posting about keeping personal opinions for its own........



further, setting the squadpatches has nothing to do with getting a campaign working..... oooooooops sorry again my personal opinion..... oh dear..

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Re: Custom Campaign Question

Post by Sherlock » 2009-09-20 16:11:20

derStef wrote:
Snake Man wrote:derStef, watch your manners, this is not your average flaming forum where you can post anything that pops into your mind.
I'm not talking to you dude, so I also do not want any kind of flaming. i just wanted to note that mr sherlick should whatch his manners, before he starts posting about keeping personal opinions for its own........



further, setting the squadpatches has nothing to do with getting a campaign working..... oooooooops sorry again my personal opinion..... oh dear..
It wasn't so much your personal opinion that prompted my reply, but moreso your rude method of doing it. And my manners were fine. I was cordial to you and suggested you refrain from making that kind of post for the reason I stated.

And what does my signature at Frugals (yeh, that's the correct way to spell it), have to do with the business we conduct here? As SM said, he runs things differently here and I was suggesting you respect his wishes because I knew what his view of your post would be. After all, this is his forum....not yours.
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Re: Custom Campaign Question

Post by Snake Man » 2009-09-20 17:12:24

Snapper, if you want to continue the ODS related discussion here, throw me a PM and I'll open this topic for you again.

Topic is now closed as this will be the end of it. If I need to tell users here how to behave, they shouldn't be here in the first place.
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