Question regarding campaign map controls

[Medar]

~S~ all

So I have been flying Ground Zero SEOW for some time now, and realized I have a PC and a nice circuit at the office I could utilize. So after reading up and goofing around a bit, I have a web component talking to a box at my office...and SEOW seems to be working. Going to fly Tunisia AI vs AI (and me) just to make sure everything is working as intended.

So here are two things I have probably not dug deep enough into...but you guys know already

1. Default passwords (admin / Allied / Axis)...where do you change these things? Some of the SEOW pages I cannot get into, even with the default password I dug out of the database.

2. Mission Files. Is there an easy-button in dealing with these, or are you guys going into your server.cfg file each time and updating the name of the mission being flown for any given evening manually?

Just trying to wrap my head around this...I have wanted for some time to have a small group of friends to be able to track their history through a campaign, and this is such a versatile and robust program...it is more than enough!

Thanks all.

[IV/JG7_4Shades]

Welcome Medar!

Here are some answers:

1. Login to the MP Tunisia sector as Admin (password is "password"). Immediately you will see the Sector HQ Page. In the top left of the screen is a grey box. You will see a "Manage" link. Cick this and you will see a new page with several links in a line. Click the Commanders link and you will see an interface showing all the defined login accounts for that sector. You can add/delete/change these accounts using this tool. Never remove the admin account, but you can change the admin password if you like.
Another way to view/edit these acounts is to edit the PilotData table in the database. That is where all these details are kept.

2. SEOW missions are designed to be flown as standard coops, so whenever I fly them I simply load my game, host a multiplayer coop and load the latest mission file (or someone else does this and I join his coop). What you refer to sounds different, so I think I am about to learn something! Can you explain more about the way you are intending to use SEOW?

Cheers,
4S

[Medar]

SEOW missions are designed to be flown as standard coops, so whenever I fly them I simply load my game, host a multiplayer coop and load the latest mission file (or someone else does this and I join his coop). What you refer to sounds different, so I think I am about to learn something! Can you explain more about the way you are intending to use SEOW?

~S~ Shades and thank you for the help, got in right away and have all the passwords changed and set...too easy once I know where to look. Awesome PHP (and otherwise)

Actually what you describe above is the only method I am aware of...which is essentially the same thing as building a coop mission in FMB...and then turning around and hosting it with a few friends.

The way I set it up, which could easily have been slightly wrong...is as follows:

1. One of my web host domains = Mission Planner Files / MySQL DB

2. My Office PC (server essentially) = IL2 Dedicated Server + DCG

I have the DCG talking to the remote MySQL database...and then writing mission files into the IL2 Dedicated Server Missions/Net/Coop/SE/ folder.

That is where I probably went wrong...I need to instead take that .mis file and transfer it to my gaming PC...I was under the impression I could host and launch it off a separate server and join it as I would someone else's coop. Still new to this...plenty of possibilities I suppose!

[IV/JG7_4Shades]

Interesting. I have no experience with IL-2 Dedicated Server (isn't this for dogfights?). The only coop server I am aware of is rnzoli's "DSC" technology.

We also need to be very careful about acronyms here.

DCG = Lowengrin's campaign generator
DCS = SEOW campaign mission generator
DSC = rnzoli's Dynamic Server Coop

These three pieces of software are completely separate tools that do quite different things. DCG is a great tool but has nothing at all to do with SEOW.

DSC is a great tool, and you can configure it to interoperate seamlessly with SEOW. This is great, since you can drive all the SEOW mission generating/reporting from inside IL-2 using chat commands!!!!

DCS is part of the SEOW suite and you use it to build and analyze SEOW coop missions from Windows.

Cheers,
4S

[Medar]

LOL yep, already confusing myself with all the acronyms.

I meant DCS, which is a wonderful program.

So from what I have been reading (and I honestly didn't know how this all was setup)...the IL2 Dedicated Server is essentially for Dogfight servers only (not coops).

So when people are running SEOW campaigns...they are using the Mission Planner (which can be installed anywhere essentially)...the Admin then uses DCS to compile the .mis file (which he can have DCS installed on his gaming PC)...and then he turns around and actually HOSTS the coop on his gaming PC.

Do I have that accurate? I have DCS installed on the same box as my IL2 Dedicated Server, which is at my office. That however is not necessary...I could install it here at the house for easier use since I will be hosting these .missions.

[IV/JG7_4Shades]

Yes, you are right about the workflow of building, hosting, analyzing missions.

If you are going to host the missions from home, then certainly have the DCS on your home PC. It will be able to connect remotely to the office MySQL database server, and do everything you need while you are at home, sipping mint julips.

However, DCS runs a lot slower over internet connections than it would if your MySQL server was at home with you. If the database is a long way away (measured in ping time from the DCS machine), each database query will take at least this ping time to execute and return results, and there can be thousands of queries each build/analyze. The fastest possible configuration is to have the database server, the web server (for MP) and DCS all on the same machine.

This is exactly what I have at home. I use a single PC to develop all SEOW software, run the software for campaigns with SEOWHQ people (Warg, Hawk5, Brandle, Ikey, Doc, anyone else), and host coops with IL2/HSFX. I just wanted to let you know that modest PCs are more than capable of doing all this job, for all but the largest SEOW campaigns.

Cheers,
4S

[Medar]

Awesome Shades - thanks for all the info.

I installed DCS last night on my home PC and then tinkered for a half hour trying to get Vista to connect to a MySQL database using 3.51. Soon as I figured that out we were up and running.

A couple of us ran our first test mission last night and analyzed it...worked like a charm. Only glitch was me goofing off and using a funny name for the campaign, when it was converted into a URL for stats it wasn't so funny! But a quick database search and replace fixed that, and I believe we are 100% operational.

Now we just have to start learning about all the controls!