Plotting an Air Mission
This is by no means the only way to plot air missions, but I have found it to work consistently. Once the mission time has been selected a waypoint list now appears. For aircraft the first waypoint is TKOFF (takeoff). Now click on the map where you want the next way point for the flight. Keep plotting until all you waypoints including one at the destination airfield have been plotted. If the mission is a ground attack mission ensure that one of your waypoints is over the target. Targets can be either factories, bridges airfields, ground units or objects. On your map ground units are represented by symbols. Simply move your mouse cursor over one to have the details on that unit displayed in a pop up. Some units may not be identified yet or you may have incomplete intelligence regarding that unit. It will appear as a question mark. Units spotted by human players are not plotted on the map. You can plot a waypoint where you think these units may have been seen. Ensure that you have at least 3 waypoints prior to a ground target (not including the ground target or takeoff waypoint) and at least 3 waypoints after the ground target waypoint prior to landing (minimum of 9 waypoints). This is a restriction of the IL-2 engine only. For air only missions only 3 waypoints are required before landing not including the takeoff waypoint or the landing waypoint (5 waypoints minimum). Also make sure you have enough waypoints and distance to climb to your desired altitude. The higher you want to climb the more waypoints you will need. I use a rule of thumb of 1 waypoint for every 500 meters If you make a mistake when plotting a waypoint right-click on the map on the right hand side. A pop up list of choices will appear. Either select Reject Latest Waypoint to delete the last waypoint plotted or select Reject all Waypoints to erase all waypoints placed so far for this mission (see Figure 13 - Air Mission drop down).
Once you are happy with the placement of your waypoints now set the altitude for the individual waypoints. The waypoints are displayed on the left hand side of the screen. Depending on the number of waypoints plotted there may be a scrollbar. If you have to use the scrollbar until you can see the first waypoint. There are five pieces of information displayed for each waypoint Dist (Distance), ETA (Estimated Time of Arrival), Speed, Alt (Altitude), and Task. For waypoint 2 click on the Alt number for that waypoint. A box will be displayed in which to enter your desired altitude. Enter the altitude and press enter. You may get a message indicating the change in altitude is too extreme for the flight. The interface will then recalculate the altitude for you. Remember to ensure that enough waypoints are available for altitude changes. Move through your waypoints entering the altitudes for the planes. Ensure that near your airfield that the altitudes are descending. This ensures that any AI planes will be able to land easily.
You can also set the airspeed at each waypoint. This can be useful when combined with careful waypoint and altitude plotting. By adjusting the speeds of planes it is possible to route them to arrive at a target from differing directions and altitudes almost simultaneously. This is better attempted using AI planes to fly these missions. It is quite difficult for human pilots to navigate these awkward and time sensitive flight plans.
Now let us deal with the tasks. If this is either a ground attack or recon mission you now set the waypoint tasks. Each waypoint can only have one of the following tasks assigned to it (task abbreviations (R,G,L,W,F):
• (R)econ – the unit will take a picture of the area inside the recon circle. The higher the altitude the larger the circle photographed. However the higher the altitude the poorer quality of the image. You can have 1 recon waypoint per photo allowed to the plane type flying the mission. B25’s for example have 10 photos available, therefore it could have 10 recon waypoints.
Figure 11 - Recon Capacity Pop Up
• (G)round Attack – You may only have one ground attack waypoint for a flight. Always place the waypoint over the intended target. If only 1 target is available in the vicinity it is immediately selected. If more than one target is available you will be given a choice when completing the orders for this mission.
• (L)and – This designates the landing waypoint. Always ensure that this waypoint is on a valid landing site. At time of writing only airfields on the map are valid landing sites. Setting a landing point on an enemy airfield and landing there will not capture the airfield for your side. Carriers are not yet valid takeoff or landing sites.
• (W)ithdraw- This waypoint is only valid for withdrawing units from the sector and into the reinforcement pool. Always let the AI fly these missions. The only valid placement of a withdrawal waypoint is on a withdrawal point on the map. To see the withdrawal points right click on the map and select show all from the menu. Around the edge of the map you will now see a series of icons. In order to withdraw a unit from the sector, plot its last waypoint on the withdrawal point. This unit will then become available in the reinforcement pool after the requisite time required for rearming. For more information on withdrawing units see 4.1.3 Withdrawals
• (F)ly – This is the default waypoint for air missions. It directs the plane to fly from its’ previous waypoint to the next waypoint. It also indicates the altitude and speed to be maintained by these same aircraft. The type of AI reactions to spotted planes will vary according to your simulation and the experience level assigned to the AI pilot.
When assigning waypoint tasks I always leave assigning the Land task to the end. Once this task is assigned you will have to start again if you wish to alter the waypoints for this unit. If you don’t explicitly set the LAND task on your last waypoint, the MP will do this for you when you right-click and select “Finalise Mission Orders”. After the landing task has been selected further options appear below the landing waypoint on the left hand side:
Figure 12 – Create Air Mission final choices
As you can see in Figure 12 there are more decisions to be made. General information is also displayed like the originating and destination airbases, the take off time and estimated landing times and the number of aircraft in this mission.
Special steps for finalizing a Ground Attack Mission
If a ground attack task has been assigned to one of the waypoints then a target dropdown will be available. Here is where you select the target for your mission. If you have no intelligence on enemy units here or there are no bridges/industrial targets in the vicinity, you can select Local Search. In the example from Figure 12 Road Bridge 55 is the target of this Betty bomber mission. You can also select initial load outs for the mission. Click on the load out dropdown and a list will appear showing all the available load outs for that make, model and year of the current aircraft. There is no check made to ensure that the correct munitions are selected. In other words it will let you take torpedoes to attack an airfield so ensure you have selected appropriate ordinance for the intended target. Players are free to change their load outs once the mission begins as long as the Enforce Aircraft Load outs setting (DCS Options:In-Game Environment) is unchecked when the coop mission is built.
Finally you can assign escorts for the ground attack mission. Click on the Escort dropdown and a list of available aircraft will be displayed. The drop down displays only the aircraft in the currently chosen map district. This means if you have the district A map displayed in the window, only the available escorts from district A are displayed. If using AI controlled escorts when flying this mission the escorted must fly in a manner that allows the escorts to protect them. Now continue with the process in 5.0.2 – Steps for finalizing all air missions
Steps for finalizing all air missions
If this is a fighter mission you can set the load out for the aircraft in the same way it is done for ground attack missions. For recon missions it is advisable to leave the load out as default. Just below the landing waypoint are the title and brief for this mission. (see Figure 12 – Create Air Mission final choices). If you click on the “Enter briefing text here” link a window will pop up. You can then enter detailed instructions for this flight up to 1024 characters. If at all possible try to avoid using special characters. These instructions will be included in the briefings available to the friendly pilots prior to flying this mission. These briefings are viewable either through the scheduled missions button (see 4.2.02 Viewing Missions) or the briefings are included in the pre-flight briefings area. These briefings are included in the information generated by the Dynamic Campaign System (DCS) mission generator and are loaded when you run the mission. The title text can be manipulated in a similar fashion, but should be under 40 characters in length.
Now once you are satisfied, right click on the map interface screen on the right. The following menu is displayed:
Figure 13 - Air Mission drop down
This menu offers the all commands from the sector drop down, plus some specific air commands. You can set waypoints through this menu but I personally find it easier as described earlier. As mentioned earlier this menu allows you to erase the last waypoint or all currently plotted waypoints. Waypoints erased individually are done in descending order, last to first. You can also use this menu to set tasks for waypoints. You can only set the task for the latest waypoint.
The Yellow menu item Finalise Mission Orders is the next step in completing the mission creation process. Once selected choose the fuel load out. At time of writing after finalizing your mission the fuel load out is reset to 25% irregardless of any previous settings. Set the fuel load outs then scroll to the very bottom of the create mission window on the left hand side. Click on the Commit Mission button and your mission will be saved. Press the back to mission planner button to return to the map interface.
Alternatively, you could use the following sequence of steps if you prefer:
- Click out your waypoints.
- Go through them making sure the speeds, altitudes and tasks are what you want.
- DO NOT set the LAND task, leave the final waypoint as FLY.
- Right-click over the map and select “Finalise Mission Orders”. This will automatically set your last waypoint to “LAND” at the nearest airfield or air supply point.
- Now set up your title, briefing, loadout, fuel etc.
- Finally, click the yellow “Commit” button.
Using this sequence means that you only have to click Finalise once, and Commit once. The fuel setting changes between Finalise clicks are thus avoided.
Canceling a mission
If you want to cancel out while in the process of creating a new mission, simply click on the refresh button which can be found on the left hand side.
On the other hand if you want to cancel a mission you have plotted, ensure that the map sector is displayed containing the unit whose mission you want to cancel. Click on the Scheduled Missions button. A list will now be displayed on the left hand side. Clicking on the check box of a unit selects the unit and displays the waypoints and tasks on the map interface. At the top of the list are 2 buttons: Cancel All and Cancel Selected. To cancel all missions click on the Cancel All button. To cancel only the missions you have checked in the list, click on Cancel Selected. You will be asked to confirm. If you reply Yes then the mission(s) are cancelled. Units in cancelled missions are released and ready to be used.
