Gunnery Range--Practice Mission.

[nodlew]

Mission Download Link:http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?t2u0e81v0v9298c

Here follows a copy of the ReadMe included with the mission download--it says it all...I think:


Installation: Drop this folder into the MODS folder in your installation of SF:K42
You must have Steel_Panzer mod 1.5 Beta installed for this mission to work.
After enabling via JSGME you must add a line to a file.
Navigate to
C:\Steel Fury - Kharkov 1942\data\k42\loc_rus\levels\LEVELS\camp

Use notepad to open "user_camp.engcfg"

At the bottom of the list paste in the following line:

Tank Gunnery Range, Tank Gunnery Range, 1, 0, back_t01.tga, txt_cit_01, 30, txt_hist_intro, hist_map_teach, levels\levels\cm_users\Tank Gunnery Range.level;

Save the file, and you should see the mission in your User Missions list.

Added instructions for people with no User Missions

Disregard the instructions above.

Additional Files--If you have never made a User Mission, you are missing some necessary files.
I have uploaded them to the following site:

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?u5p4ttoiukkiewe
Download the rar and unzip it. Navigate to:
 
C:\Steel Fury - Kharkov 1942\data\k42\loc_rus\levels\LEVELS\camp

Place the two files there (not the folder they come in), and the mission should show up in your game under User Made Missions.

The user_camp.engcfg file has the Gunnery Range mission listed and you should see it under User Missions in the game. I hope this works. If not, let me know and I will identify the problem and correct the process.

Here is a very simple Gunnery Range mission. It includes armor (stationary, unmanned
Tiger I's--the only unmanned tanks available in the Editor), trucks, motorcycles, and
mounted infantry. The stationary targets are arrayed at ranges from 600 to over 2000 m.
Look around you will see them, at various facings. That cloud of dust you will see
approaching from the South--your left--is a column of trucks and motorcycles which will
move across your field of fire. They generally follow the road, but move somewhat
unpredictably-not a bad thing. Some of the trucks have mounted infantry which will
dismount if engaged, adding infantry to your target menu. You can engage at all normal
combat ranges and practice using AP, HE, and Shrapnel rounds.
There is no briefing text, as I have not yet learned to do that, but as I learn more, I will
probably make an improved version of the mission.

This mission is primarily for Soviet tanks as all the targets are of German type. I will
probably make a version for the German side. If you know how to use the editor at all,
you can easily make your tank a German one if you don't mind the idea of shooting your
own troops. Kinda rubs me the wrong way, even in a game. To change the type of tank
you are practicing in--(default is T-34) just use the editor to switch your commander to a
different tank, then change the T-34 to something different. I assume just about everyone
knows how to do this much. But if anyone has any questions, ask them here and I will
reply.


I think I've got everything right as far as the folder structure and the installation instructions. If there are any issues, please let me know. As a Gunnery Training mission it is pretty effective--I know it is improving my use of the Russian sights, especially my familiarity with different types of ammo for different types of targets.

[Stig]

I don't see a user_camp.engcfg file in Steel Fury - Kharkov 1942\data\k42\loc_rus\levels\LEVELS\camp\.

I have:
camp_list.engcfg
main_camp.engcfg
prokho_camp.engcfg and
prokhower_camp.engcfg.

I thought it might be camp_list.engcfg (sounds generic and non-specific enough), but the format of the "list" doesn't match what you're saying to paste in there... here's a sample of the last line in my camp_list.engcfg:

camp\prokhower_camp.engcfg, prokhower,       txt_cm_camp_Prokho1,         true, img_pz4;

So I'm gonna stop and ask for a clarification...

[nodlew]

Well, hmmm. I sure have one, and I think that's where the line has to go. I just did a test, and yes, that is where the line goes in order to show up as a User Mission. And it has to be pasted, you can't just open the mission with the Editor and save it, which would be easier.

What you will have to do is make a User mission so you have the user_camp.engcfg file. Open the Mission Editor, click Cancel, choose a map, click Create, type in a name, then press the Editor button--the map will open. Place one Soviet contour anywhere on the map that is within the green grid and assign your default T-34 to that contour. Save the mission. I think that will give you a User mission list--and the engcfg file in question. Open the engcfg file and paste the line just after the data related to the mission you just created. That should do it, if not--I'll figure out something different. We could put it in Single Missions, for example.

Or I will upload my user_camp.engcfg file to mediafire--with just the Gunnery Range in it and you can just put that into your camp folder. In fact, I'll just do that any. Link to follow...wait, there's two of them, user_camp and user_camp_list. Anyway, I'll upload both of those files. That should work.

User_camp + User_camp_list engcfg files: http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?u5p4ttoiukkiewe

[Rends]

Those player who never made their own mission seems not to have the user camp file.
Same goes for the weather one. Make sure to include it in your mod or some guys will see wiered looking skies.

[nodlew]

Thanks Rend. The weather file, which one is that? I think I got everything. I did a search for the mission title and four files popped up. One levels file, and three script files. Those are the files I included in my zip of the mission.

[Rends]

Have close look at my Prokhorovka campaign.
You find the weather file in the folder of the same name in the LEVELS folder.

[nodlew]

Ok, I see it now. I'll have to re-zip the mission with the weather file--but won't that weather file be incompatible with the players' own weather files if they have them? Damn, making missions for this game is a little more clunky than I'm used to. I need to learn how to make a Pack file so people can just unpack the thing. Or maybe an executable installer. Never done that before, probably dirt simple.

[nodlew]

What is really missing here is any kind of info about anything. Is that an inclusive enough statement for ya? As I learn to do things in the editor, I am going to make tutorials for it. That will document, for my own use the things I learn to do, and might prompt others who know more to share their information and break this Hellraiser Puzzle Box open once and for all for us Western Players. First tutorial coming soon. Don't expect video--I don't have a microphone. Pdf with lots of pictures.

[Rends]

Yep that´s the same i´m currently doing right now. Learn it the hard way. There isn´t much more information out there.
So print out the Editor manual check stock maps and scripts ect...
About the weather file. Give it a different name and change the weather link entry in the mission name level file too.

[nodlew]

Ok, I'll do that. Appreciate your help as always.

Trying to understand various aspects of the game has led me to do some more research, and I've learned some general things about...stuff. For instance, I couldn't figure out why my HE shells in the Russian tanks had a flatter trajectory than my AP rounds. Come to find out, the AP round in question (BR 350A) is Armor Piercing High Explosive, and they actually had a muzzle velocity which was about 25 meters p/s lower than the OF 350 High Explosive Fragmentation round. So the game is right on target, so to speak. That also explains why my Armor Piercing rounds keep exploding when they hit a bush. Solid shot, like APCR or the Matilda's solid shot AP ammo penetrates bushes and branches. Pretty neat.

Finally learned what Caliber (-bre, for you Europeans) means in relation to gun barrel length. Caliber expresses a relationship between the diameter of the gun's bore and it's length from breech to muzzle. For instance--the F-34 version of the Soviet 76.2mm gun (the improved version used in later model T-34's and in the KVI as the Zis 5 gun) was 42.5 calibers. 76.2 X 42.5 is 3238/1000=3.2 m long, or about 10 ft. The King Tiger's barrel at L/71 was 20 feet long. Interesting. An Iowa class battleship's 16 inch gun was around 50 calibers--or 66 and a half feet long. (!)

Even after repeated recourse to the manual, I'm still a little confused about which scale, Long Range-DG on the left or Old Grenade-SG on the Right, is the appropriate one to use. I'm beginning to think the instructions in the manual are backwards. The manual says to use the left scale for a Long Range Grenade (BR 350A/OF 350--the basic stock of ammo). However, the Left scale is for a weapon that has less velocity and hence a more parabolic, curved trajectory. The right scale is obviously for higher velocity ammo with a flatter trajectory. For example--if you set up the cross-hair for a 1000 meter shot by the Right scale, that equates to about an 800 meter shot on the Left scale. Now, obviously the ammo with the higher velocity has longer range and a flatter trajectory. So if you point the gun at a certain elevation, the ammunition with the higher velocity (given equal aerodynamic characteristics) will travel straighter farther before it begins to drop off, achieving greater distance. Right? I have shot at the same target on my Gunnery Range in a Tiger and in a T-34. The Tiger's sight is on target at 1200m--using the 8.8cm scale, which is the only one, and must be correct. The T-34's sight is likewise on target at 1200m using both AP and HE ammo (with slight variations explained earlier) when I use the Right scale--not the left one as indicated in the manual. Using the left scale, the range is less.

If anyone can enlighten me further, I'd appreciate it. If only I could read Cyrillic. Now that is a thought I never dreamed I would express.

I actually have not found in game any main gun ammunition at all that uses the Left scale of the sight. The machine gun works with it quite nicely however.

Ok, I renamed the weather file and included it at part of the Mission folder, now it will be enabled along with everything else via JSGME.

Anyway, this has been a very instructive process in itself.

[Stig]

Those player who never made their own mission seems not to have the user camp file.
Same goes for the weather one. Make sure to include it in your mod or some guys will see wiered looking skies.

Can somebody send me a copy of BOTH of those files (user camp and weather)? Please send to: allendkrsn@yahoo.com. Thanks in advance.

I do seem to have a "corrected" weather file that fixes some odd sky graphics for Prokhorovka.... but I have no indication of any user_camp file. So, I'm at a disadvantage.

I tried adding that line to another one of the files, but no gunnery range mission shows up.

[nodlew]

Stig, I have sent you an e-mail with the files attached. I had uploaded everything to mediafire, but I guess you didn't see that I had at the top of the page. Take a look--top of this page. Anyway, you should have the files in your e-mail in-box. 

[frinik]

I am surprised that so many people don't have the weather and user-camp files in their game.I have had them even before I downloaded or made user-made missions.It must be a recent bug because I had never heard that issue before ??

Somebody mentioned the Desert missions(Afrika mod) you must have the map Hill206 enabled and installed in the games files before you can play them.|once you go in your mission editor and check in new missions or the map editor it should appear last in the list of the games original maps( 18 of them).

Thanks for the gunnery practice mission good idea. I make my own with the mission editor which is simple really.Choose a map, create coloured zones for Germans and Soviets, measure the distance with the mobile ruler in the ME choose your tanks and the vehicles you want to use for target practice, the weather conditions if you wnat to and save and load and bingo you're in business!

BTW the new optic scale grader in 1.5 beat for the Tiger is nto as good as in the previous releases.

Re barrel length this si why the Panther with a L70 75 mm gun had more penetrating power than the mighty  Tiger I with it;s mere L56 barrel despites it's morepowerful 88 panzergranate 39...


BTW Nodlew it's calibre , centre, and colour pretty much everywhere people speak English not American

Cheers

\frinik

[nodlew]

I have not yet been able to get Hill 206 to work for me. For one thing, the datapack just wont unpack. I click it and it does nothing. Could be a bad download I guess.

Do people still speak English? I've heard of it. Thought it was dead, like Latin. Wasn't that the language some Sheakespeare guy wrote in, and they wrote the Bible in where people call each other Thee and Thou, and m'lady and m'lord and they're always having a cup of tea with crisps (which are apparently potato chips) and biscuits that aren't actually biscuits at all but rather what normal people call "crackers"?

[Stig]

Heheheh, now, now nodlew.....

Anyways, I unpacked this and have a severe case of the "mistextured sky". My view through the sight in gunner view looked like the dead of night, so that was the first indication something was wrong. I went to external view and found everything discombobulated, texture-wise.

I'm *pretty sure* I unpacked the weather file properly... but I've installed the Prokorovka stuff, this one, and tried to install the Desert mod, all at the same time, so it's possible I just screwed the pooch on this.

Can someone post the path and the (edited) contents of the weather file for the gunnery range, so I can determine if I've got all the right files in all the right places? Thanks in advance.