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DCG: An idiot's Guide - Printable Version

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DCG: An idiot's Guide - Scharnhorst1943 - 17.12.2007

Sorry for the name, LOL, but anyway.

First off, what this thread is going to be about is:
1) How to set up DCG and get it started
2) How to tweak DCG to custom fit it either for your computer or for your own personal taste
3) How to edit the DCG campaigns that are already provided
4) How to create your own campaign from scratch, and how to make it so that a certain side will always or usually win a map.

Any and all questions are welcome. I want to ask that this thread be specifically for people who want to know more about DCG, or are frustrated with DGen and want to give DCG a try. I want this to be for those who are interested, so please leave any anti-DCG flaming BS out. Big Grin If you are against DCG, great. More power to you and your opinion. Not in this thread please.

OK, now that that is out of the way, lets start with part one.

1) How to set up DCG and getting started.
If you do not have the DCG program, you can get it here: http://www.lowengrin.com/download.php?view.120. So what is DCG? DCG stands for Dynamic Campaign Generator. It is a wonderful little program created by Paul Lowengrin. Essentially it is a replacement for DGen. What DCG does is simply generate missions. So when you are in your game, and you complete a mission, IL2 calls DCG for the next mission. DCG generates the next mission, and then IL2 loads it. That simple. What sets DCG appart from DGen? Several things. Basically, DCG gives you more options, and tries to maximize the use of cool things in the game. So DCG lets you choose what time of day you fly, or randamizes it, DCG also randomizes the weather so you could fly in clear, cloudy or thunderstorms. Also, There are random # of flights generated per mission. There is ALWAYS something going on in the mission other than what your flight is doing.

Now, once you have the program downloaded, unpack the RAR file to your desktop. Now cut and paste this folder inside your IL2 game folder. Now go into the DCG folder inside your Il2 folder and run the DCG.exe. In the window that pops up, you are being asked first, "Where is IL2 on your computer?" and secondly, "Where is DCG on your computer?." Go to the appropriate exe's and hit OK. The DCG window should now be open. In this window, go to the top menu bar and go under "Mode" and in the drop menu select, "Offline-Career (Full Auto Generation)" and "Replace Career Generator (DGen)". Now you need to start IL2 and start a campaign, it does not matter which country, just generate A[/i] campaign. The purpose is that there must be a campaign to tweek to tweek DCG.

Now go to the DCG window and on the same upper toolbar, go to the "options." I recomend checking the following settings:

Active Front - This shows static objects and you could see battles at the front when two tank colums intersect ...
Air Starts - Allows AI squadrons to start airborne. This may allow for an unexpected scramble mission ...
Delayed Start Times - This lets airfields spawn flights throught the mission. If this is unchecked, any flights that cannot fit on a runway will start airborne at that runway.
Normandy British Base - This uses the Normandy map that has the little British Island. I like this because it lets me takeoff and land every mission, to each their own
No Transfers -This keeps a squadron at an airfield until it is overrun, or the front gets outside of the action radius
Paratroopers and AI Chutes -If you have a lower end machine, don't check this. This allows transport aircraft to do paratrooper drops if it is in the campaign.

Other options are:

Aircraft Downgrades-If a squadron suffers heavy losses, and cannot put up a full flight of aircraft, that squadron will fly the downgrade plane until it can put up a full flight. So if the plane is a F6F Hellcat, the downgrade would be an F4F4 Wildcat.
Historical Production Dates-This only allows planes to be available durring historical dates. If before a set date the downgrade will be flown. If unchecked, any plane can be available at any time in any campaign. Which can be good for say, mimick aircraft ...
Massed Bombers -If this is checked, any heavy bomber squadron will ALWAYS spawn four flights of four planes. It will also always start airborne. If unchecked, the number of planes will be that same for any other squadron.
Ships Remain Sunk -Any ship sunk will stay sunk and not respawn. I don't recomend using this one, because if the Germans sink the Transports, they could cause there to be no Invasion of France ...
Primary Objectives -If checked, you cannot proceed to the next mission if you do not complete your prime objective. If unchecked, you can advance to the next mission as long as you survive.
Stats Reset on Death -If you die, your stats are reset and you just go to the next mission. If unchecked, you must repeat a mission if you die to keep your stats.

DCG Panels and conditionign DCG
Now go back to the DCG window. There is a row of icons in the upper portion. Click the first one. This is the settings panel that covers basic DCG operations. These settings will be set in all campaigns. If you have a lower end computer, you need to turn down the number of flights. So the top left drop box is the flight density per mission. If set to full, every squadron in a campaign will fly every mission. Other settings are percentages, so by turning it to a lower setting, each squadron may have say, a 70% chance of flying each mission. I recomend heavy or moderate, depending upon your machine. Column density is the number of tanks, vehicles, trains and ground units that appear. I highly recomend leaving this on full. For Stationary object density, I need to explain. At each location in the map, there are static objects underneath buildings so that bombers will destroy the factory buildings. Stationary Object Density is how many of these objects show up. I recomend leaving it set to full, but if you have a low end machine turn this option down, but NEVER off. You will need static objects. Action radius is a circle of X distance from your airfield in which static objects appear and can be attacked. If you want shorter missions, shorten the action radius. For longer missions with more target opprotunities, make it larger. Time passage by default is one mission per day. You can change it so that you fly several missions per day or one mission every 2 or three days. Max flights per squadron is how many flights fly for each squadron per mission. I recomend two. The other boxes are how many planes make up each flight. I recomend four.

If you can get this done, you can then go in and start up a campaign and see what it is like. There are more options to edit, and I will go over them in the next post. If there are any questions, launch em in here, and I will get back to all those questions later tonight.[/url]

- Uther - 17.12.2007

A good idea this thread! How does installing dcg affect other campaigns already being flown in the game?

- Scharnhorst1943 - 17.12.2007

Uther Wrote:A good idea this thread! How does installing dcg affect other campaigns already being flown in the game?

DCG will totally replace DGen. You can do one or the other. But do not get discouraged, because you can switch back and forth with a simple click. So you can't play your DGen campaigns while using DCG, but you can switch modes and continue them. That or you can let DCG take over your DGen campaigns, because that is what it was originally intended for. However, there is a little bit of tweaking to get DCG to takeover every stock DGen campaign. What you have to realize is that DCG comes with it's own maps and campaign defaults, which are different from DGen.

So let me explain what I mean when I say, "Map." DCG has what are called "Master Maps." If you look at them in the Full Mission Builder, you will see one of the maps in game, whith static objects placed under factory buildings, static railroad cars at train stations, AA protecting "locations" and off in a corner you will see every ship, plane or armor/vehicle used in that campaign. These are the defaults. The planes in that map are the squadrons used, with set difficulty settings and skins. So when the game loads a campaign for a certain "Map," It uses those ships, planes and squadrons and tanks to advance the campaign. DGen has something kindof like this, except DCG is MUCH MUCH more easy to edit and change. All you have to do to change a plane type in a campaign map is open the master map in the full mission builder, change the plane type and save. BAM! DONE! NEXT!

So to answer your question, you will not be able to continue your current DGen campaigns, but don't deleate them because you can switch back and continue them later if you wish.

- Scharnhorst1943 - 17.12.2007

Further Explanations of DCG editor pannels.

In the above post, I explained the generic campaign settings, like how many missions per day, how many flights per squadron, exc... Now let me go into more cool / more indepth stuff.

Aircraft Class Settings - this is the second icon on the top bar from the left. This panel describes EVERY plane in the game. In this panel you can change the type of the plane (bomber/fighter/dive-bomber/...), how high it flies, how fast the cruise speed is, What its payload is for each mission type, WHETHER IT IS FLYABLE IN CAMPAIGNS OR NOT, and what dates it is available in the campaign.

Squadron Editor PAnel - This panel is used to edit squadrons in a specific campaign. In order to tweak this you need to open the campaign file by clicking the open button, then navigating to, "Il21946/Missions/Campaign/*Nation Abreviation*/DGen_*X*_*MapName*" and open the squadrons file. In this panel you can change what airfield each squadron is based at, what skin each squadron is using, what aircraft each squadron is flying, the skill of the squadron, how many planes available in the squadron, and you can give any pilot in the squadron a custom skin.

Ground War Editor Panel - In this panel, you can change the date of the campaign, where the supply locations of each side are, you can change alliegence of any location to make it red or blue, you can add troops to defend each location (this is not litteral troops, but an abstract concept)
This panel is used to change where the front lines are.

Ground Objects Editor - In this panel you can change the ship types/tank types of any vehicle available in the campaign. You can also change static objects and where they are located too.

Waypoint Settings Panel - This is for very advanced users. Leave it alone.

Custom Mission Selection - Here you can Generate a mission for a campaign after you have done all of your changes. More options here are varying types of weather and times of day. Set start/end time to random for best results as well as best weather to clear and worst weather to T-storms. You can also edit cloud height, intercept chance, and pick a mission type and location for target. If you just save the settings and then exit, the next mission will use the saved settings. If you save and then generate a mission, when you go back and load your campaign, the mission will be updated.

*Note - You do not need to generate a mission each and every time. Generate it once, and from then on when you complete a mission it will be automatically generated.

- Scharnhorst1943 - 21.12.2007

Ok, I have a question for all. Do I just release a campaign that I have been working on when I get it done, or do I start an in depth walk through on how to build campaigns from scratch? It might take me a while to get the campaigns done though.

Also, who all is interested in this thread? The lack of replies is somewhat discourageing ... Sad

Is my initial setup not cutting it, is it everything everybody knows? I would like some feedback.

- Scharnhorst1943 - 22.12.2007

Oh well, I will start the in depth toturial I guess. But in order to do it, I have decided to start a map from scratch, and walk through making one map step by step. I will post everything in here in a way that you all can copy it and paste it into ".mis" files and open it up in the FMB to see what I am doing. The map we are going to make is the Ardennes map. So, here goes:

The first thing you need to do is start up IL2 and go to the Full Mission Builder. This is where most of the work is done to make these campaigns, but don't fret, it is not that hard Big Grin .

So, in the full mission builder, load the Ardennes map. The first thing you need is a road network. On the map you will need to decide where the two supply locations are going to be. So for simplicity sake, lets choose St. Vith as the German base, and Eindhoven Airfield as the French base. Now what you need to do is have a road network that travels from St. Vith to Eindhoven Airfield. However, you need to stop at each location you want in your campaign. Also, one other thing to keep in mind: You may want two or three different routes that lead to the enemy supply, this way you get random outcomes, or the two sides don't clash and never get anywhere.

Road Routes - Things to remember when making road routes: When dealing with bridges, you need 5 waypts from the start location to the bridge, then 5 waypts from the bridge to the next bridge or location. If you want the bridge itself to be a location, you need to put 2 waypts after the bridge, then when starting at the bridge you need 2 waypts before it. So for example, you start your road at St. Vith and it goes south to Clerveaux Bridge. You need 5 waypts from St. Vith to the bridge and 2 waypts after the bridge. For the next part of the road, you need two waypts before the bridge and 5 waypts to the next location. If you wanted the road to continue past the bridge into the town, then you need 5 waypts from St. Vith to the bridge, then 5 waypts from the bridge to the town.

The last two waypts of the previous road section and the first two waypts of the next road section need to go in the same general direction.

So here is what my .mis file looks like. In the first example I have a road that starts at St. Vith and ends at Veisalm Bridge. Note the aircraft. Later on you will need the bridge number, so whenever you use a bridge as a location, always give a random aircraft two waypts (one a Gattack) and set it to the bridge. If the bridge is not a location, don't bother. In the second example, the road ends at Manhay.

Example 1: Bridge as location

[MAIN]
MAP Ardennes/sload.ini
TIME 12.0
CloudType 0
CloudHeight 1000.0
army 1
playerNum 0
[Wing]
r0100
[r0100]
Planes 1
Skill 1
Class air.P_11C
Fuel 100
weapons default
[r0100_Way]
NORMFLY 38518.54 37896.34 500.00 300.00 &0
GATTACK 39237.29 37615.85 500.00 300.00 Bridge34 0 &0
[Chiefs]
0_Chief Armor.1-BT7 1
[0_Chief_Road]
52900.16 36900.19 120.00 0 2 2.3611111640930176
52696.64 37088.23 120.00 0 2 2.3611111640930176
52482.84 36896.87 120.00 0 2 2.3611111640930176
51700.41 36900.37 120.00 0 13 2.3611111640930176
51500.00 36700.00 20.00
51100.00 36300.00 20.00
47900.00 36300.00 20.00
47300.00 36900.00 20.00
45900.00 36900.00 20.00
45300.00 37500.00 20.00
43500.00 37500.00 20.00
43100.00 37100.00 20.00
42300.00 37100.00 20.00
41500.00 36300.00 20.00
40700.00 36300.00 20.00
40500.00 36299.34 120.00 0 7 2.3611111640930176
40300.00 36500.00 20.00
39900.00 36900.00 20.00
39700.00 36900.00 -35.00
39300.00 36900.00 -35.00
39100.00 36900.00 20.00
38951.10 36900.49 120.00 0 2 2.3611111640930176
38917.32 36897.47 120.00
[NStationary]
[Buildings]
[Bridge]
[House]

Example 2: Bridge between two locations

[MAIN]
MAP Ardennes/sload.ini
TIME 12.0
CloudType 0
CloudHeight 1000.0
army 1
playerNum 0
[Chiefs]
0_Chief Armor.1-BT7 1
[0_Chief_Road]
52900.16 36900.19 120.00 0 2 2.3611111640930176
52696.64 37088.23 120.00 0 2 2.3611111640930176
52482.84 36896.87 120.00 0 2 2.3611111640930176
51700.41 36900.37 120.00 0 13 2.3611111640930176
51500.00 36700.00 20.00
51100.00 36300.00 20.00
47900.00 36300.00 20.00
47300.00 36900.00 20.00
45900.00 36900.00 20.00
45300.00 37500.00 20.00
43500.00 37500.00 20.00
43100.00 37100.00 20.00
42300.00 37100.00 20.00
41500.00 36300.00 20.00
40700.00 36300.00 20.00
40498.30 36288.18 120.00 0 16 2.3611111640930176
40300.00 36100.00 20.00
39500.00 35300.00 20.00
39100.00 35300.00 20.00
38900.00 35300.00 -16.00
38700.00 35300.00 -16.00
38500.00 35300.00 20.00
37500.00 35300.00 20.00
37300.00 35500.00 20.00
35100.00 35500.00 20.00
34500.00 34900.00 20.00
33300.00 34900.00 20.00
32700.00 34300.00 20.00
28500.00 34300.00 20.00
28300.00 34100.00 20.00
28098.72 33899.89 120.00 0 4 2.3611111640930176
28100.00 33700.00 20.00
28100.00 33100.00 20.00
28098.55 32898.40 120.00 0 4 2.3611111640930176
27900.00 32900.00 20.00
27700.00 32900.00 20.00
27507.46 32902.20 120.00 0 2 2.3611111640930176
27501.31 33081.97 120.00 0 2 2.3611111640930176
27441.35 33153.76 120.00
[NStationary]
[Buildings]
[Bridge]
[House]

So when you are working in the full mission builder, there are two ways of going about making your roads. You can either load the map, and make each road segiment individually, and save each road segiment as individual .mis files with the names of the two locations or you can just do them all in one .mis file. I preferr the first one, because it is really easy to loose track of the names of your road locations. That will come in handy later.

So question to all:

Do I now go into how to combine all of the road networks into DCG's .rds file? Or do I cover all the other types and then go into editing the DCG files later, all at once?[/img]

- fly_zo - 22.12.2007

Scharnhorst1943 Wrote:Ok, I have a question for all. Do I just release a campaign that I have been working on when I get it done, or do I start an in depth walk through on how to build campaigns from scratch? It might take me a while to get the campaigns done though.

Also, who all is interested in this thread? The lack of replies is somewhat discourageing ... Sad

Is my initial setup not cutting it, is it everything everybody knows? I would like some feedback.

i believe many have interest for this great job you doing here .... i just though that you like it nice and clean . Big Grin

Ok , i have question : in the middle of stock campaign if i'm switching planes for my squad back and forth (fighters/bombers)and just generate next mission after it.... does that have any bad influence on progress in campaign?

please don't feel discouraged .... i'm assure you this is much appreciated !

Z

- lowfighter - 22.12.2007

Scharnhorst, I'm interested in your tutorial. I tried a couple of times to learn how to build a dcg campaign from scratch, but got discouraged by the pretty random info I found about it (maybe this discouragement made me overlook this thread for a while). So please carry on, whatever way you feel it's better for us to learn (your question about how to go on).
And thanks for your effort :!:
Some questions probably later...
Also if possible some FMB pics (like a pic showing just what you're been talking about the routes bridges and supply places) may help understanding quicker.

- wingflyr - 22.12.2007

Great post sharnhorst , this trully nice info here, thanks for you time and work M8.

- ojcar - 22.12.2007

I have great interest! But I have little time to test, I'll try, be sure.

- FA_Cheech - 22.12.2007

I have been using DCG for years, but this is a very good tutorial, and I have already learned quite a few new things...keep up the good work m8!

- Scharnhorst1943 - 23.12.2007

fly_zo Wrote:
Scharnhorst1943 Wrote:Ok, I have a question for all. Do I just release a campaign that I have been working on when I get it done, or do I start an in depth walk through on how to build campaigns from scratch? It might take me a while to get the campaigns done though.

Also, who all is interested in this thread? The lack of replies is somewhat discourageing ... Sad

Is my initial setup not cutting it, is it everything everybody knows? I would like some feedback.

i believe many have interest for this great job you doing here .... i just though that you like it nice and clean . Big Grin

Ok , i have question : in the middle of stock campaign if i'm switching planes for my squad back and forth (fighters/bombers)and just generate next mission after it.... does that have any bad influence on progress in campaign?

please don't feel discouraged .... i'm assure you this is much appreciated !

Z

As far as it affecting the campaign, the ainswer is yes it can. When you make a map, (Or in the insance here whoever made the default map) it was made with a balance in mind. By switching the plane types it can change that balance. If that balance is what you intend then it is a great thing. But if that change dissrupts the balance of the map, then it might force a certain outcome.

With some maps, there is a lot more chance of random or dynamic outcomes than others. On maps that might not have as much leeway, it may be a problem. On maps that have more flexibility with the outcome, the effect may not be as felt.

So to answer, it can, it depends on alot of deeper circumstances. Let me give you an example. The Midway map. If you change all the Japanese squadrons to fly Kates, and all the American squadrons to fly F4F's, you will probably have the Americans lose the Battle of Midway every time. You could achieve the same effect by making all the US squadrons ACE or VETERAN and making all the Japanese squadrons ROOKIE. This way the US will be more likely to get hits on CV's and sink them.

- Scharnhorst1943 - 23.12.2007

Thanks for your posts guys. I am sorry if I came across the wrong way, input is greatly appreciated and welcomed Big Grin . I am going to both state the tutorial and answer questions. I have a feeling questons will come later when I get deeper into the campaign.

@ lowfighter - I can and will post some pictures of what I am talking about :wink:

- fly_zo - 23.12.2007

@Scharnhorst1943:

thanks for detailed answer m8 , but i meant changin only player squadron planes.... for example in Coral sea campaign if recco plane doesn't survive mission you never get to attack enemy fleet. So i switched to fly that recco plane and next mission was attack the fleet .... afterwards i switched back to fighters and continue campaign ... is that ok? What i really like to know does such actions influences my progress ( how DCG calculates ranks and rewards ....)

thanks in advance Big Grin

Z

- Scharnhorst1943 - 23.12.2007

fly_zo Wrote:@Scharnhorst1943:

thanks for detailed answer m8 , but i meant changin only player squadron planes.... for example in Coral sea campaign if recco plane doesn't survive mission you never get to attack enemy fleet. So i switched to fly that recco plane and next mission was attack the fleet .... afterwards i switched back to fighters and continue campaign ... is that ok? What i really like to know does such actions influences my progress ( how DCG calculates ranks and rewards ....)

thanks in advance Big Grin

Z

Oh yeah, that would be fine, and won't have much affect on the campaign. That is perfectly fine. As far as calculating rewards, the game still calculates rewards. DCG does not do anything about calculating rewards. So it is simply a strait points value I believe.