Article Type: How-To
Article Date: January 31, 2002
Product Info
Product Name: COOPGen
Category: Add-on Utility
Developer: David R. Joyce
Release Date: Released
Req. Spec: Requires IL-2 Sturmovik
Files & Links: Click Here
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How-To Version: COOPGen v1.5
I love cooperative missions. I also love air-to-air combat. To me the most fun I’ve ever had was being a member of the ol’ VMF-124, flying Corsairs over Slot on Kali using European Air War (EAW). Flying along, trying to stay in formation, then a cry over Roger Wilko would be heard, “Tony’s 1 O’clock low, fight’s on!” Ah, those were the days.
Now along comes IL-2 Sturmovik (IL-2). Can that joy be returned? I hope so. But to use IL-2 that way, some problems must be fixed. One is a problem that the IL-2 team is working on (I hope). The second has to do with the choices of coop missions presented by IL-2.
The first problem has to do with the fact that even patched, Version 1.03a, IL-2 still continues to create “ghost planes” under certain conditions in multiplayer coop missions. A ghost plane is one that only the host of the game can see. I believe that this is due to the way IL-2 handles AI aircraft spawned into the game after it has started. EAW handled this nicely, with hardly a hiccup or ghost to be found, but until this is fixed, the use of IL-2 is limited when it comes to on-line multiplayer coop missions.
And this is where the second problem comes in, the choices of missions. IL-2 came with several multiplayer coop missions to choose from and there are numerous user-created multiplayer coop missions to choose from. So theoretically there is a good supply, even more so than with EAW, which never had a mission editor.
But all IL-2 missions, canned or created, suffer from a similar deficiency. The person creating the mission knows what’s out there. He/she has placed the planes, flack and whatever. The creator knows all. This is a problem with any human based mission generator.
Now one of the great features of IL-2 is the level of “realism” that can be obtained. The flight models, the graphics, the damage modeling, etc., are all combined to make IL-2 the most realistic combat flight simulator to date. Realism, however, ends when one knows what awaits him/her in the sky. World War II fighter pilots may have had a vague idea of what the opposition would be, but they did not know where all the flack was or from which direction the enemy would show up. Any human playing a mission he/she created consciously or unconsciously knows this information. So if we take the human out of the loop, then, to some degree, a realistic surprise level is achieved.
Thus the program COOPGen
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CoopGen Version 1.5  |
Now while the ghost plane problems exist in IL-2, COOPGen’s use for on-line multiplayer missions is somewhat limited. In testing I was able to get some generated missions to work as multiplayer coop missions over a LAN, but a majority of them failed. While this limits the program’s usefulness in multiplay, in single player it works great. In fact, beta testing of Version 2 has shown that this might actually be COOPGen's strong suit.
So what is COOPGen? It’s a program that allows the user to enter a set of particulars, runs the settings thru a decision tree, and generates both a .mis file and a .properties file. Sounds simple, right? Sorry there is a lot more going on behind the screen.
Take for example figuring out the skill level of your AI enemy. It’s loosely based upon what you pick for the human skill level. But it also takes into account the following: the year in which you want to fly (skill levels changed during the war as it went on for both sides), the month (winter weather demands higher skill), and the degree of difficulty for the mission you selected, and a roll of the dice. It also takes into account the number of AI planes the program has figured you’ll meet and then does the same routine for each flight of AI.
So the result is, I hope, no two missions will ever be the same for the same settings.
How to use it
I won’t go into the particulars of every selection. That you can get from the help file. What I want to talk about is how to get the most out of the program when using it in single player mode. Hopefully this will also aid folks when the multiplayer coop missions bug is fixed.
Ok, you’ve generated a mission and now you want to fly it. Fire up IL-2 and go to Multiplay. Yup, Multiplay. Even though you are flying off-line you still want to use IL-2 as if you were on-line. (Note: This will change under single play in Version 2.)
At the Multiplay screen, change your flight type to “Cooperative” from “Dogfight”, change the number of players to 16 (the max that COOPGen is designed for), and hit “Create”. Now at the next screen, you’ll see a small rectangle marked “Mission Type”. Use the down arrow to find the folder “COOPGenMissions”. Once that is there, the list of missions you created via COOPGen will be displayed.
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| IL2 Coop Missions |
Highlight the one you want (in this case KURSHTEST1). Over on the right, will appear the data about the mission. In the photo above we see that this mission is a Russian Bomber Intercept, that the “war” date is 27-Feb-1945 at 0800 and that the mission was actually created on Jan 20, 2002 at about 2300 hours.
Now a note about the first line of that description: While in this case it says “Russian Bomber Intercept,” that may not always be the case. Instead it could be a fighter trap set up by the Germans (AI Side). Or it could be a heavily escorted group of bombers. Or a lightly escorted one. Or with no escort at all. COOPGen will develop missions based upon a built in set of decision trees.
What the heck is a decision tree and when does it bloom?
In its basic form a decision tree is a set of instructions that are executed depending upon the value of a variable and the results from other, previous, instructions. In the case of COOPGen, the selections entered by the player are used to determine which paths in the programming will be followed. But during the journey down that path, other factors are calculated and more than likely affect that final result, The example I used above on the setting of AI skill is one such path. Among others that the program has built in is the determination of which planes the AI will use, any load outs they might carry, and where, what type, and on whose side the AAA units will appear.
There are ten different starting points for COOPGen missions (as of Version 1.5). For the Fighter Sweep, there are three types of “find AI fighters and mix it up” (including no AI planes around) decision trees, a “Scramble” decision tree and an “Airfield Attack” decision tree. Bomber Intercept has four types of “find the bombers and shoot them down” decision trees and one Scramble tree. Which tree is taken is determined by a simple dice roll, influenced by the settings you selected at the start of mission generation. Between those ten and the sub-trees, COOPGen can produce some interesting twists.
On with the Game
Ok, hit the “Load” button. After loading the highlighted mission, IL-2 will present you with a briefing screen with information about the mission generated by COOPGen.
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| IL2 Briefing Screen |
Here the screen says we’re to take off from Verkhouie Airfield, fly at 2740 meters at 274 KPH and land at Kursk South Airfield.
Ah, say just where is that? Well in IL-2 you can find those locations. Move the cursor over to the map and right click until you see the city names. When putting the data together for COOPGen, I plotted all the airfields and named them according to the closest city. If you left click and hold on the map, you can move it around and find those cities, thus getting an idea as to the mission’s flight path.
Once you have an idea of where you’re going, hit the “Aircraft” button and select your plane. If you are using this as a single player, select the first plane. Doing this will give you control over the others in your flight and you can manage the squadron tactically when you run into the AI. If you are playing this mission in true multiplayer mode, then my suggestion is for the second player to take the number 5 slot. That way the second player has command over his own flight.
So at this point you’re good to go. Hit the “Fly” button. Up comes the player screen. If you’re by yourself hit “Fly” again. If not, the host hits the “Fly” button when all players are ready. The game should come up and after an initial pause for object loading, you should be ready to take off.
When you finally get that crate up and are starting to feel comfortable you’re going to want to figure out which way to go. There are two ways in COOPGen missions, the easy and the hard.
Remember the briefing said 2740 meters at 274 KPH? Well that’s fine, but in what direction. IL-2 has a cockpit map that uses the mission data to draw you a line. Just toggle it on using the “M” key. Use the right click to magnify and left click/hold to move it around. With the map and the height and speed you should be able to find your foe.
Since I’ve taken off first that means that my AI wingmen will be following shortly. And since these are computer-controlled pilots, they’ll follow the planned mission (with the exception of the Number 2, for some reason he tends to follow you around). So I just loop around the airfield and pick up the Number 3 and 4 planes as they climb out and head off.
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| Follow the Leader (or in this case Number 3) |
On the cockpit map above you’ll notice that the waypoints and flight path are marked. The Blue airfields are AI side controlled (they would be Red if I had chosen the German side to fly for). Under COOPGen version 1.5, your side’s airfields are white. In future versions, the airfields for both sides (Red and Blue) will be colored appropriately.
First Contact
So here you are flying along, trying to stay in formation and wondering when the AI will show up. If you have “Icons On”, as I do for illustration purposes, you’ll know when that happens via two events. The first is a pause as the AI aircraft are spawned into the game. This is a bug in the object loading routine of IL-2 and currently under review by the IL-2 programming team. The second event is appearance of the AI plane icon on the cockpit map. Now if you have “Icons Off”, you still get that pause, but nothing on the map. When the pause comes though, you know they’re around, time to start looking.
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| First Contact |
Notice that the icon shows up before the planes are visible on the screen. This is not always the case. Every decision tree uses sub-trees to calculate the direction, altitude difference, speed, and range to the human player at which the AI will “pop” into the game. They can show up behind you, in front, off to one side, or even right next to you. For the most part, however, they will appear at about the halfway point in your flight, but still be aware that they can show up at anytime; and they might have brought some friends to play too.
One of the hardest parts of COOPGen to program was the calculations of how many AI planes should a human or a set of humans face. I had to balance what would make the missions fun, frustrating and challenging, and at the same time playable for most people. Too many objects generated causes IL-2 to run slow and with stutters on some machines. So I had to settle on a formula based upon the number of human players. That is why the upper limit of Human Players is set at 16. Any more and the risk of high volume object generation leading to massive stutters was mathematically too great. It still can happen, but the risk is lower.
Time to Boogie!!!!!!!!!
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| Party Time!!!!!!! |
Well judging from the map and the view out the front, it looks like I’m going to be a little busy for a while, so I’ll have to close. But before I do. I want to let you folks know that I'm working on Version 2. I plan to add some ground attack missions, improve the flack distribution, change some of the COOPGen buttons, add the capability to use it to create single player missions, and a few other surprises (insert evil laugh here).
I also want to give a BIG acknowledgement to some folks that have helped and are helping with this on-going project:
First, to Spectre, a great idea chaser, beta tester, and all-around good sport. Second, to Jennie (Dancer) Mitchell, for the inspiration and help during the early days. Third, to UberDemon, for answering a lot of questions about the IL-2 mission builder, map workings, and object generation. Finally, to Len “Viking1” Hjalmarson, his Mission Builder Guide here at Combatsim was a big help in understanding just what the heck was going on in IL-2 missions.
Ok, have fun, enjoy the program and let me know how it goes for you. I’m always open to suggestions to make COOPGen generated missions even more enjoyable.
“One, Check Your Six”
Ooops, gotta go now……Hey where did those holes come from?
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