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SDOE Mission Making Tutorial - Part 1
By Scott VergeLead them in parallel to the shoreline starting North of the flak and make the waypoint Bomb, set the width to 0.10. This sets them up for a very precise target, the flak. We don’t want them trying for the town, which they might do if it is set too wide---the AI in this game is easily confused. Set their altitude to 2000 feet so they don’t get nailed by the Flak Panzer. Let's save our mission here as simple3.mis and take a test before setting up some opposition.
Captured a split second before the explosion
On my test the, first P-51 was taken out by the flak. The second one survived and completed his mission. With the way clear the Lancasters came in shortly after and finished the job off nicely and also headed for home. We can now confirm that the waypoints placements of the P-51 are working properly and we can move on to the next step. Click HERE to download the sample: simple3.mis
Step 4
Our editing will now start to get involved in details as it takes on the form of a more rounded mission. Now let's introduce some German fighters into the mix.
At this point in our tutorial, we come to realize there's a much needed feature missing in the SDOE mission editor: time settings. I don’t want my German fighters to just be hovering over the town automatically. It takes away all reasoning for having the Allies come in low in order to avoid setting off the klaxon until the last possible minute.
In real life there may or may not have been a German patrol flying in that airspace. Depending on the time of the war, this reality of air cover numbers could vary greatly. What I would like to have is an option to have the Germans delay their departure until a certain amount of seconds into the mission. Or even better, to only scramble when the air raid is announced by the klaxon.
If we wanted to take this idea even further (and believe me I do) the air raid siren could even tell the fighters to launch when the klaxon spots the aircraft and give them an approximate altitude and bearing to fly at to come into contact with the Allied flight. That would save us a bundle of work. We could just set the German flight at a close airbase on scramble mode and be done with it.
Alas, we don't have this feature so we have to work with what we have been given. By placing the German fighters at a far away airfield, you can time it so they get over the town around the same time they would if they took off from the closest airfield right when they got the scramble call. This is accomplished by placing the waypoints in a pattern that delays their arrival over the airfield around the same time the Lancasters are scheduled to arrive in the air space.
A historical match for the P-51D is the Bf-109G. Add the aircraft and set the fuel to 750 lbs. with heavy cannon as the weapon loadout option. Start the 109's from the Doullens Airfield on a heading of 60º. Place the waypoints to time their arrival properly and to give them time to climb to altitude. Proper altitude will give the 109's a fair chance going into a fight. This can be accomplished by placing the waypoints in a zig zag pattern, keeping their set airspeed below 250 mph, and their final altitude to 5000 feet. This way they will be above the bombers at the merge.
