I seem to have developed a habit of bringing aircraft down hard and fast as a result of frequent carrier operations. I need to not do that with the Avro, or it might not matter how hard I flare. The textures on the naval base parts are very basic, mostly featureless concrete. The runway and taxiways have nearly full markings, but that's about it. I'm mostly trying to get some basic geometry done, with collision maps, then I'll get the textures worked out some more. There will likely be several updates to the parts I'll be posting here before they're completely done. I also need to work on the edges of the parts. It seems that, even if the tops of two flat pieces (runway & tarmac, etc) are at the same height, tires will still "see" the edges of the pieces, and might get snagged & pop under heavy acceleration/braking. I think I can fix it by beveling the edges ever so slightly. If the entire naval base was one large piece, then there would be no edges and therefore no problem. However, a monolithic base wouldn't be modular and able to be reconfigured/rearranged.
The recon team returned with the intel on the naval base in the north fjord. Here's a high-altitude drone view of the base: The base is on the south shore of the fjord, just east of the fjord elbow. Italy is barely visible through the distance haze in the middle of the top of the photo. I don't know why a drone view looks like binoculars. I think it's the recon team leader's idea of a joke. Here's a view of the runway with the tarmac/hangar/tower in the background: Here's a view of the runway that reveals a little more of the docks on the south side of the runway: Here's a close-up of the docks: It appears that the hangar is quite sizable: The tower can view all surface activity around the facility: I beveled the surface edges of the naval base parts and tires don't pop anymore when moving across seams. Yay! Oh yeah, and I've been doing more runway light work. Here' s the airport in Italy with runway and taxiway lights:
There are naval base parts attached to this post, and a script for spawning a base in Italy. The base will appear in the fjord between the largest two islands to the north of the main Italy island. You can spawn the base in other levels, but it will look weird because the coordinates only make sense in Italy. How to spawn a naval base: Drop the file HighBeam9000_NavalBase.zip into your mods folder. Spawn yourself on the Italy map. Invoke the debug console with the tilde "~" key. To the left of the command line at the bottom of the debug console window, make sure "GE Lua" is selected. To spawn the base depicted in Naval Warfare Post #222 above, enter the command scripts_HighBeam9000__NavalBase_extension.SpawnFjordNavalBase(0) into the command line followed by the Enter key. To spawn an alternate base, enter the command scripts_HighBeam9000__NavalBase_extension.SpawnFjordNavalBase(1) into the command line followed by the Enter key. The large piers connected by bridges are for the static Motorsports Playground aircraft carrier. Spawn a couple of those carriers and park them next to the piers. I'm going to add functions to the script that spawn runway and taxiway lights next. Also, if you use the World Editor to place parts individually and build your own base design, don't forget to change the "Collision Type" and "Decal Type" to "Visible Mesh Final" for every base part you place. Otherwise you'll go right through the parts because they don't have proper collision maps yet. If you do build your own base design, please post pics of it here. We'd like to see it. Even better, gather the coordinates of the parts and post the coords in this format: "PartName", xPosition, yPosition, zPosition, zRotation Then I can roll those coords into the script in the ZIP and we can have another base style to spawn. Yay!
The landing strip lights script is attached to this post. Currently, it only has lights for the airport in Italy. Eventually, it will also have light scripts for Jungle Rock Island, Utah, and Sandy Mountain. Are there any other airstrips in other levels that we should have covered? Even though there's no airstrip in Johnson Valley, I'm still going to put some landing lights out on the salt flats. That's where I launch planes from when I'm there. To spawn Italy airport landing lights: Drop HighBeam9000_AirstripLights.zip into your mods folder. Spawn in Italy, probably on the airstrip. Invoke the debug console with the tilde "~" key. To the left of the command line at the bottom of the debug console window, make sure "GE Lua" is selected. For a low-density light pattern (fewer lights), enter the command scripts_HighBeam9000__AirstripLights_extension.SpawnItalyAirstripLights(0) followed by Enter. For a high-density light pattern (more lights), enter the command scripts_HighBeam9000__AirstripLights_extension.SpawnItalyAirstripLights(1) followed by Enter. Enjoy, then enjoy some more. Note the flashing red light on the tower. I just learned about animated lights and just had to include one. UPDATES: Tarmac overhead lights are now included for Italy. Spawn tarmac overheads with the command scripts_HighBeam9000__AirstripLights_extension.SpawnItalyTarmacLights() The full landing light set (so far) has been released to the Repository. Get it here. The temporary ZIP attached to this post has been removed.
Here's what the fjord naval base looks like with runway and primary taxiway lights: I still need to add tarmac taxi lights, a tower safety light (blinking), and overhead lights in the hangar. Then I'll update the Naval Base ZIP file with some light placement scripts. The next update after that will have overhead lights for the tarmac and docks. I'm going to smuggle the light poles out of the warehouse where the Italian airport authority keeps their spares. It could be months before they notice.
So, I boosted the light poles from the Italian airport authority, added some light bulbs, and installed the lights at the naval base: The hangar also has lights in it, and the tarmac has taxiway lights.
We have full landing lights and other illumination in a released mod here. Lights are included for 5 airstrips. Let me know if we need to add coverage to other airstrips.
I've been waiting on something like that for a while. Night landings before consisted of hoping that the minimap would guide you in, basically flying blind. Sweet!
(More than) Once upon a time, I wrecked a barge trying to navigate the water at night using the GPS, so I added headlights. Lights fix so many things.
The Ramp for the Flat Top Barge has been released to the Repository. You can get it here. For a challenge, use the barge with a ramp to rescue flood victims from high ground before the rising waters get to them (also requires the Flood mod). This idea came from @rodmunch99 's review of the ramp.
Well, what do we have here? There just might be a plane down there. I'm going to look up the serial number on this wing. Maybe there's a record of a plane being lost in the vicinity. I'm also going to get the submersible and go down for a closer look. I'll bring back photos.
The material and the size of this wing makes me think it's an Avro arrow down here , resting in peace among the fishes , After a hard battle.
[radio static] Surface 1, this is Sub 1. I found the other wing. It doesn't appear to be a triangular, delta type wing. I don't think this is from a downed Arrow. This is from... something else. I'm continuing the search... [radio static]
[radio static] Sub 1, this is Surface 1. What does the damage look like on that wing? [radio static] [static] This is Sub 1. The wing damage looks like what you'd expect: like it was ripped from the fuselage when it hit the water. Why? [static] [static] This is Surface 1. This wing up here has scorch marks on it, and the metal around the edge is bent outward, like it was blown off by an explosion. [static] --- Post updated --- [static] Surface 1, I found the fuselage. It looks like a Cessplane L19. I'm going to survey the fuselage for damage. By the way, we need to be careful how deep we take this sub. As soon as I got down here, the tires popped. Aviation-grade racecar tires are expensive. [static] --- Post updated --- [static] Surface 1... I, found the... [gulp]... pilot. I can bring him up so that we can give him a proper burial at sea. [static] [static] Sub 1, this is Surface 1. So, you want to bring the remains back up here, just so we can dump him back overboard? [static] [static] Nevermind. [static] --- Post updated --- We recovered the pilot and his plane. There's a briefcase in the back of the plane... --- Post updated --- The brief case is empty. That's weird. Also, we checked the serial numbers found on the wings and other components, and that particular plane isn't listed as missing. It's listed as "scrap" located at the Utah airstrip. Why is this plane listed at the Utah airstrip when, clearly, it's not? This doesn't add up. I'm going to the Utah airstrip to see if that scrap plane's really there. --- Post updated --- I went to the Utah airstrip, but I didn't get a chance to take a look. I didn't even get close. As I was on approach, I was met with machine gun fire. I bugged out as I was getting lit up. The STOLide suffered some damage, but it got me back to base. We can repair it. I'm going to have to wait until nightfall to go back. I need to find out what's going on. This feels like some spy stuff is going on, or maybe an organized crime element.
Hmmmm so it was something that nobody exepted Also , is the air&naval forces seperated from the army Land forces
I've always operated as if the naval aviators got it covered, alleviating the need for a separate Air Force. I haven't done much Army work. I would think the Army would be separate. I usually insert ground troops via boat, which might make them Marines, maybe? That would conveniently locate everything under the Navy umbrella. Oh yeah, many of the mysterious events chronicled above are definitely unexpected, and most are still unexplained: We have two planes with identical serial numbers: One recently recovered from offshore of JRI, and the other supposedly located at the Utah airstrip, as of yet unconfirmed. To which plane does the serial number truly belong? Why is the imposter plane (whichever one it is) not wearing its own serial number? Who manipulated the serial number plates? Who doctored the aviation registration records? One of the wings from the recovered plane showed what appeared to be explosive damage. This was later confirmed when explosive residue was found on the ripped/burnt portion of the wing. The most likely causes are (a) a missile hit, or (b) an explosive device was planted onboard. We have a deceased pilot who very much appears to be a victim of murder. Who was the pilot? Who iced them and why? Who served me a lead sandwich at the Utah airstrip? They were awfully quick on the trigger and didn't take too much time to ID me before shooting at me. Professional military and even mercenaries (most of them) will take a second or two to identify their target before opening fire. The Utah aggressor didn't wait at all. How badly did somebody not want that sunken plane to be found? Bad enough so that I'll have to look over my shoulder? Is this just the tip of the iceberg, and under the surface there's some insane espionage action going on, the kind that determines the fates of nations? There's an underground bunker in Sandy Mountain. I'm going to lay low there for a while until I figure out my next moves. I need to gather some resources and contact some people who owe me favors.
