(This article may be found at http://www.combatsim.com/htm/2000/08/sdoe_tutorial2)

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Page 2

SDOE Mission Making Tutorial - Part 2
By Scott Verge

Keeping The Group Together
Another technique is to set waypoints all around your airfield so the first planes off field don’t outrun the other planes. They will circle the field as the others take off and the late comers will form up with them and amazingly ignore the waypoints that the leader has already passed.


Keeping the bombers together for the trip could be beneficial to their health





All formed up with the leader out front. Don’t ask my why they never pulled their gear up, such is the world of SDOE



Small note about runway numbers: I only recently learned that runway numbers are based on the compass bearing they run parallel with (so I'm not a real pilot, ok). So, in real life, runway 21 would run lengthwise along a bearing within 5 degrees of 210 degrees on the compass (they drop the last digit, "0" in this case, in real life). In SDOE we just use the whole number. Too bad there weren’t numbers right on the runway itself (like in real life---but maybe not so during the war, so perhaps it is authentic).

Also, about parallel runways---I’m not exactly sure how the game decides on which of two parallel runways to start a squad. Again, in real life, two parallel runways are given either an "L" for "Left" or "R" for "Right" to distinguish one from the other. Therefore, 21 L would designate a runway running lengthwise on the 210 bearing and that it was the left one out of a pair of parallel runways. Ya learn something new everyday.

Klaxons
Something to add some enhanced realism is to add a Klaxon (also known as an Air Raid Siren) to each airfield, town and factory that any aircraft will be attacking. It's simple to use: just place it as close to the object on the map and it will play the air raid siren when opposing aircraft come near. It's actually a very cool and imaginative add-on developed by Rob Falck. He took a flak gun and changed the model and changed the wave it played when it shot (ingenious). He then removed the actual guns so it didn’t hurt anything. Nice and simple and very cool.


Well in this case it didn’t really help, but it sure sounds cool



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(This article may be found at http://www.combatsim.com/htm/2000/08/sdoe_tutorial2)