Customize airbase flight deck in the mission editor?

[zmiksic]

In the Mission editor, is it possible to edit aircraft available in the Flight deck? Right now only "preset" aircraft are available. For example Airbase -small land unit only has preset aircraft available. Can I add any type of aircraft to the airbase? Thanks!

[Slamdingo]

I believe, at present, there is no way to customize the flight deck of airbases or aircraft. They come with a stock set of aircraft and that is it.

But it would be cool if they add it in future. Especially if you could allow or disallow loadouts that are otherwise available for a plane, like if you want to make an airbase a small fighter base that doesn't really have the munitions and planes for EWAR or SEAD, and another that has a bunch of planes that have anti-ship loadouts made available.

[Daywalker1986]

I don't get why it seems no one is willing to use the search function before opening a new Topic, that was asked and answered multiple times, including how to mod it.
All airbases are .ini files, they are in the SeaPower Steam Folder, use a text editor

[Bambi]

Anything in steam folder is enforced by steam and will be overwritten, so to be moddable it needs to be in a user folder.

[Slamdingo]

Originally posted by Daywalker1986:

I don't get why it seems no one is willing to use the search function before opening a new Topic, that was asked and answered multiple times, including how to mod it.
All airbases are .ini files, they are in the SeaPower Steam Folder, use a text editor

Asking somebody to MAKE AN ENTIRE MOD just to be able to, say, have an airbase have / not have a type of plane is a little bit of a weird and extensive ask (as outlined by Bambi about how its effectively asking people to make a mod to avoid the file they add being overwritten or messed with by Steam).

[Daywalker1986]

Originally posted by Bambi:

Anything in steam folder is enforced by steam and will be overwritten, so to be moddable it needs to be in a user folder.

Changing the Planes available on an Airfield takes a few Seconds and you can save it with copy/paste into a Text file, when a Patch changes the Airbase ini you can simply copy it back. Since release only 4 out of 234 Files in the Land Units Folder got patched.

[Redmarkus4]

If it's just a matter of editing a few text files, I expect the editor will eventually be updated to let you configure those files via the UI. It's most likely just a matter of priorities for the devs.

[Mmarchi]

I have been playing around with the files but to no avail so far. I have a feeling it lies within the "variant" .ini files since I have seen some with "CustomAirGroup=True" (going on to list airgroups/plane types). I'll keep playing around with them and see if I can find a way.

My concern though is that since we are editing our own .ini to create custom flight decks, I am thing that these custom flight decks will not work for others (say if uploaded to workshop) since they will be missing the new (modified) .ini file to pull the data from.

Any input form devs would be amazing!

[[NcK]MasterShake|CM]

Originally posted by Daywalker1986:

Originally posted by Bambi:

Anything in steam folder is enforced by steam and will be overwritten, so to be moddable it needs to be in a user folder.

Changing the Planes available on an Airfield takes a few Seconds and you can save it with copy/paste into a Text file, when a Patch changes the Airbase ini you can simply copy it back. Since release only 4 out of 234 Files in the Land Units Folder got patched.

You can also move these over to the user folder and edit them there, presumably those don't get overwritten on a patch. Similar story to make your own airbases, airfields etc. It's all very modular... just... unsupported...ly... modular.
I'm also not sure which one has priority if they are named the same, which means you might want to rename your custom airbase. Make sure you also drag over the corresponding language_xx and make custom entries in those as well or your custom airbase will be borked in the editor.

[Mmarchi]

So in response to above, I tried adding in a new small airbase file (copying the original and just editing the aircraft) and when I add it to the list it messes with the entire land units list making any land units unselectable in the "unit type menu" or not addable to the scenario being edited. When I remove the new/added airbase_custom.ini that I added, the list goes back to normal and works again.

Not sure if I did something wrong but it seems we cannot add addition .ini files to the list, only edit current ones.

[[NcK]MasterShake|CM]

I made a very simple one that I have tested and works [ie: turned it into a civilian airport].
Took the data of small airbase and saved it as user/land_units/civ_airport_1.ini. Stripped out all the military aircraft and changed the civilian ones to:
civ_707=Squadron7,5
civ_dc-10=Random,0
Which gives it 5 707s of the KAL variety.

Also copied the small airbases variety ini to user/land_units/civ_airport_1_variants.ini with no changes.

Then copied original/language_en/land_units_names.ini to user/language_en/land_units_names.ini and after the entry for [airfield_small_1] added a new entry:
[civ_airport_1]
Type=Airbase
Default=Airport -small,Airport
Variant1=Airport -small (YURO),Airport
Variant2=Airport -small (US),Airport

Everything was correct in the scenario editor for the flight deck and when I tested the scenario I could launch [up to 5] KAL 707s... though admittedly the taxi and takeoff was a bit wonky as I don't think the small airbase was supposed to handle 707s...

[Mmarchi]

Ah I believe my mistake was not creating a variant.ini for my custom_airport.ini. Also thank you for including the names part because I was unsure of how naming worked.

[Daywalker1986]

Thank you MasterShake, didn't knew that you can use the user Folder for that already

[[NcK]MasterShake|CM]

Oh uh, you have to reload the game to get those files updated-- and I made the game hang multiple times with invalid entries, so don't modify a million things at once or it's going to be a hassle to find out what went wrong.

[LΞTHAK]

You can do it in the mission ini file, but the custom info will be removed from the file if you open and resave it from the ingame editor (a design flow according to the devs) ....


Here is an example of an airbase with custom planes only described in the ini file. The last 4 lines are doing the job, and you'll have to add them after each time you save from the ingame editor. Also work with naval carrier




[Taskforce1LandUnit1]
Type=airfield_small_1
VariantReference=Variant1
MissionType=NoMission
WeaponStatus=Free
RadarsActive=False
CrewSkill=Trained
Stores=Depleted
Damage=None
RelativePositionInNM=172.42,low,-77.94
Nation=us
Heading=0
CustomAirGroup=True
usn_p-3c=Default,1
usaf_b-52g=Default,2
usaf_f-15c=Default,5

[General Jack Ripper]

Originally posted by Daywalker1986:

I don't get why it seems no one is willing to use the search function before opening a new Topic, that was asked and answered multiple times, including how to mod it.
All airbases are .ini files, they are in the SeaPower Steam Folder, use a text editor

Then it should also be equally easy to implement in the game's user interface.