spawn rates and reporting, air attacks
 

I notice some missins I play cause the target convoy or task force to update on the map quite often before they reach detectable range. How does that work?

Also, if I want to add traffic along a given track, such as patrols comming through the english channel during a uboat mission, how do I control how often they spawn (they'd travel their tracka nd rather than looping they'd just dissapear and respawn at the other end) thus keeping a fresh ship along that track ebcause if you sink it it'd be replaced by a new one shortly anyways..they wouldn't leave it "unpatroled"


thirds, how exactly does one add extra planes? Do planes need constant waypoints or will they keep on flying around the area after the end of their "track"?

1. If you are talking about the square that is shown on the map, that is created in the mission editor when you place a ship or random generated group. It is in the ships properties as "Contact automatic report (Min)" Min stands for minutes. If the box says -1 it will not show its location at all. If you put a value in that box it will update its location. So a value of 1440 will show the new location every 24 hours. Next to that box is "Probability %". If you want it to show the new location leave it at 100%. Anything less and it may or may not show its new location, depending on the %.

2. Right click on the map and select "Random Gererated Group" It can be one ship or many ships. In the window add the ships you want and enter values, don't forget the number of columns so they are not all in one line unless that is what you want. There is a box you can check for "Postion as escort" so they can leave the group such as with Destroyers that go after your sub. You can also set the probability of each ship spawning so that each time the group can be different.
After you make the group the first thing you should do it to right click and set the speed before you set any waypoints otherwise the game selects 5knots. If you forget, you can always go in later and set the speed and click "Update Waypoints".

3. Planes act just like ships they follow a path if you add them to the mission. If you add a nearby airbase, or aircraft carrier then the game will generate planes by itself. If you want specific planes you can add as a group and select the last waypoint and right click and loop back to waypoint one. Or you can do the same as above and make a "random generated group" only make it air instead of naval.


Peabody

so what exactly will a plane do if it reaches the lstt waypoint? Crash? Circle the general area (like the training mission?)

If it is set to "delete on last waypoint" it will disappear. If it is not I would imagine it would crash, but I never had any reason to test it. I either wanted it to disappear or loop back.
I never wanted to guess what it was going to do, I always wanted it to do what I make it do. If I want it to circle the area, I would make a loop. For example, make waypoints 4,5,6,7 and then on waypoint 7 make it loop back to waypoint 4.
If you want to know, set up a mission with a plane flying and the last waypoint is directly in front of your sub. Set the height about 50 feet so you can see it, use a big bomber so you can see it and watch what happens. Then you will know.

Peabody

is there a way to select what the random group contains? Like by class or something? (lets say I want the patrols to be things like flowers, alcos, armed trawlers, ect)


Also is there a way to specify what equipment is on the sub or the merchants?
Like torpedo or surface gun type, specify an armed merchant, ect?

1. Read #2 in the second post, Open the mission editor and try it.

2. No. If it is not a random group you can select cargo for the merchants.

Peabody

Is there a way to make lables show up on the mission editor map like they do on the ingame map?

Use "File/Merge" Campaign.NMS for names of sea, Islands etc. For harbors and such Merge Campaign.LOC

Peabody

I'm guessing there is also a way to show exsisting traffic? I am thinking of doing a mission which involes a harbor. I probably want to know what the game already puts there esp if I am going to be putting ships in the dock, correct? (otherwise wouldn't they spawn on top of one another and explode?)

All the traffic is in Campaigns/campaign. For the harbors it is strangely enough Jap or US_HarborTraffic.mis. Again you can use merge to see it. So if you merge Harbortraffic and campaign.LOC you will see the dock and the ships. But the ships are Randomly generated so some will be there, some will not, but you can see where NOTHING will be.

Peabody