Once again Game Tool Technologies (GTT) has come out with another value added product. This time its for Jane's LongBow2 (LB2).

This new product is called the Missioneer-PLUS written by Richard "Flexman" Hawley, a newbie to the GTT team. LB2 comes with 4 forms of mission offerings: 10 canned single missions, a semi-automatic mission generator, instant action and campaign. What is glaringly absent is a manual mission editor or builder. But not to worry, here comes the cavalry: Missioneer-PLUS to the rescue. Now you can make single or a whole series of mission to keep LB2 fresh and share them with squadron mates.

The Missioneer-PLUS, LB2 mission editing environment.

In the world of mission editors and generators, only the very best enable you to have a map based graphical user interface (GUI). Other types have forms and cyclic field choosers where you have no idea what you really have until you test fly it in the game itself. What I look for in a mission editor is the ability to make both solo and multiplay missions.

This is where the real value add is IMHO. Sims like: Fighter's Anthology, Su27 Flanker, Panzer Commander are examples of fine multiplayer sims that also came equipped with full blown mission editors. They support SOLO, MP, H2H and COOP mission building. How too often have we been disappointed when what would be a great online MP sim comes armed only with solo game play mission editing like: Jane's F15-E, Hornet Korea, iF18-CSF, Flying Corps, Red Baron2, etc. Or worse, sims with only canned missions with no editor at all except a custom plane and loadout chooser like: EF2000, F22 ADF, WarBirds, Dawn of Aces, etc.

Test flying my newly made TANKS_ALOT mission. (Note Map MFD).

So lets dive into the Missioneer-PLUS and see what we get for our money. Being that I fly LB2 almost exclusively online with a buddy of mine (Paul "Blades" Papasalvas), I wanted to make a mission that was fairly complex with lots of moving ground targets with cast of supporting airborne ships flying CAP. Also being a Panzer Commander fanatic, I wanted to emulate a good tank battle except updated to LB2 standards. So with this initial design concept lets take a look at how we do this with Missioneer-PLUS.

We start by installing the software downloaded from the GTT website. Then we have the option of importing the latest generated single or campaign mission, or opening one of the existing single missions and modifying it as a template for my own use. I'll do the latter because STOMPER is closer to what I want to start with.

Note that being able to replay a auto generated mission with the option of doing some "what if" post flight modifications is a great insight. Obviously "Flexman" is a user of sims, not just a developer. I think this is what makes a game developer great, like Andy Hollis of Skunk Works who is known for his avid simming over the years.

Mission Options popup windows.

After selecting our mission's template from the STOMPER mission, we can load it and start the process of custom tailoring it. Under the EDIT menu, we can use the Briefing Text Editor to customize the mission briefing that shows up in LB2. Note that it is in HTML format. If you're not familiar with HTML, just edit the normal text and leave the unfamiliar syntax alone. Otherwise just leave the briefing alone. Note that there are buttons along the top of this editor for friendly and enemy situation report (SITREP), mission details, weather, and communication frequencies.

The linkup checkpoint (waypoint) of Apaches from flight-1 with Kiowa flight-2.

The mission Environment window is used to set the wind speed, direction, time, temperature, and visibility range. Next up is the forward arming refueling point (FARP) Inventory Editor. This the way that you pre-seed the arming window in LB2 that allows you to select your loadout. The Mission Support Units window is where you can assign how many strikes allied and enemy ground and airborne units are available, their rearming cycle, and striking range. The way I see it, these are the global environment variables that you define for your mission's parameters.

The View menus are to the right of the Edit menus. Here we find the commands needed to zoom, change map labels and contour (topographical elevation lines), fonts, colors, and grid marking options. Moving right again we get the Checkpoints menus. Here we can make the waypoints (or a la British, checkpoints) visible or not for the 4 FARP flights. With the Toggle All Units feature, we can see the waypoints of all other units as well. But since this gets quite busy in a hurry, you can see the wisdom in making the visibility of these switchable.

Another noteworthy feature is that you can quickly change the terrain map from AZR to NT out from underneath any mission with a single button click. Thus you can turn a hilly terrain into a desert terrain map mission instantly without changing any other settings. Other maps will be provided later on, and could be made by users as well outside of the context of this application.

Using the Units and Checkpoint interface to control the battle.

Now we get to the heart and soul of the Missioneer-PLUS. Up to this point, we have dealt with global mission set up. Along the right hand side of the map, you will see three buttons labeled: List, Unit, Players. These are the three modes of setting up what ground and airborne units are on the map; how many and what properties are assigned for each unit; and how you want to deploy your FARP flight's ships.

Soviet T-72 and Mi-24 HIND are some of the targets you will have to deal with.

The List mode, will make the interface to the right of the map provide the user with fields that pertain to assigning group designations and map icons to each unit from either side of the conflict. An example would be to call a tank platoon an Armor Map Icon with a Group Designation of Primary 1. This means its a primary tank target which is factored in to the final Air Tasking Order Report statistics (ATOR), and thus players scores. All the available Unit types in LB2 are available through this interface: Armor, Fighter, Helicopter, SAM, EW Radar, AAA, Infantry, etc. The Unit mode is how you edit the properties for each and every unit in the mission. For example, the 3 Plt, 267th Tank Regt is comprised of four T-72 TANKS that are dug into their emplacements. If you hit the Objects button, you can add, remove or change to the number of tanks or whatever other vehicle/ship you require. If you hit the Timing button, you can control the activity of each unit. This include when it wakes up, appears, vanishes, or activates by range to enemy presence. Thereby programming a portion of the AI of the computer controlled units.

The Unit Editor assigning ground and airborne units to the battlefield.

The Checkpoint (ChkPnts) button is how you add and subtract waypoints. For each checkpoint, you can use your mouse to select the targets of your flight. Time over target (TOT), speed and altitude are also parameters to be set by the user. These are the most time consuming work in the mission creation, but are important if you want your wingmen to show up for the party.

My first shot at this failed because I used the ESCORT FARP instead of ESCORT PLAYER action to get my computer flown Kiowas to escort my flight. What happened as a result of my error, is that these blokes hung around the FARP like a hawk over a field mouse. The amount of time you invest into Unit setup will be directly proportional to the complexity of your mission. Why? Because you're manually setting up the AI of the battlefield. This makes me respect what the semi-automatic mission generator is doing for us in a matter of seconds.

A-10 War Hog and Su-25 Frog Foot on the prowl in TANKS_ALOT.

The Players mode is used to define the flights available to human players. The default is that each flight is assigned its own FARP. But that might not be the best use of FARPs. You may decide to have all flights assigned to FARP1 on take off. Then spread the FARPs along your checkpoints to facilitate what their name implies: forward arming and refueling points. Doing so, would enable the flights to rearm and engage without having to crash and die, or spend lots of time returning to the takeoff checkpoint. Checkpoints are assigned as well as air tasking orders (ATO 15051 means SEAD, search and destroy mission). Selection is also made for type of airship desired: Apache, Kiowa or Blackhawk.

Air Tasking Orders window summarizes allied air assignments.

Report file windows gives mission success and failure statistics.

The post flight statistics for you mission is compiled and made available to you via the Air Tasking Order Report. Here we get the numbers on things like kills, success and failure statistics on a per flight basis. A great squadron or tourney score keeping report that has a print button feature. The Mission Flight Profile report is a list of the checkpoints versus the action to be performed and TOT. A good thing to check before you fly, or to print out as a knee board crib sheet while flying the mission.

When it comes to add on products, BattleField Communicator and Missioneer-PLUS get my votes for best simulation add on products of the year, thus far. These are superior products that come to us at half the cost of the average flight sim. This genre rarely gets any respect, but I believe that they are well worth the investment for the serious simmer.

Paul "BLADES" and myself "AV8R" in formation via TCP/IP, this is great MP gameplay.

What a product like Missioneer-PLUS does for LongBow2 is that it makes this King of the Rotors sim even better. I found it surprising that LB2 did not already have a manual mission editor when I first went through all the GUIs. This is the same developer that makes the fully featured editor for USNF97, ATF, FA; so why was it missing in LB2? For that matter, why was it also missing in F15-E? I don't have the official story on that, but I can only imagine that MP mission editing seems to be a bigger development issue for 3D games than it was for 2D only games. Its probably also the last item on the development schedule task list.

In any case, let's thank our lucky stars for add on developers like GTT. Soon to be released will be the LongBow2 Commander which is even more advanced than is MissioneerPLUS (an upgrade offering is available to those that already own MissioneerPLUS) So what's next up GTT, an editor for Jane's F15-E? We all know F15-E needs an MP mission editor _real_ bad.

The Missioneer-PLUS has a free 30 day trial period before you have to register it. In the mean time, feel free to try my mission and download this starter bonus pack from GTT: Be fore warned, my TANKS_ALOT mission has A10, Su25, Cobra, Hinds, and a pair of F16s flying in the vicinity. The idea is to scramble protect our front line of defense tank forces, search and destroy all ground and air threats. And if you're really hot, go up the valley of death and take out the enemy's HQ.

SEMPER FI, and Enjoy! Send the best missions you create to : The Editor.

AV8R's TANKS_ALOT mission.

Till next time, Check Six.

AV8R