Facility Locations

[ParachuteProne]

One of the most difficult things I find in creating a quick scenario is placing somewhat realistic facilities.
We can import airbases but independant radars or SSM's or other facilities are pure guesswork or require alot of work to research.

Would it be feasable to have a sticky thread where a world map perhaps even a Command map could be used to plop facilities down as players find them. Map would need to be zoomable.
The actual placing could be done by dev team to keep it realistic.
Something like this would soon grow to a huge size.

Could even be expanded to place approx force sizes for naval/land forces although this would be alot more work - especially for the land stuff.

Questions would be

1) Could it be done ?
2) Would players find it useful ?
3) Most important - would it be too much work for dev's ?

[ComDev]

Not sure if you already know this, but you can convert Placemarks in Google Earth to units in Command.

Mega-FAQ:
http://www.warfaresims.com/?page_id=2920#912

Instructions:
tm.asp?m=3471768

[ParachuteProne]

ORIGINAL: emsoy

Not sure if you already know this, but you can convert Placemarks in Google Earth to units in Command.

Mega-FAQ:
http://www.warfaresims.com/?page_id=2920#912

Instructions:
tm.asp?m=3471768

No, I didn't know. Pretty slick.
Perhaps a community project to Placemark the facilities ?

[Rongor]

You can try to contribute to the wiki at baloogancampaign.com. There you'll find listed facilities accessible on googlemaps...

For example, this is a collection of the current military radar network in Germany, visible in googlemaps and also available as downloadable import file.

[ParachuteProne]

ORIGINAL: Rongor

You can try to contribute to the wiki at baloogancampaign.com. There you'll find listed facilities accessible on googlemaps...

For example, this is a collection of the current military radar network in Germany, visible in googlemaps and also available as downloadable import file.

Nice ! Thanks !

[SeaQueen]

It's also important to recognize that many SAM systems and SSMs are mobile. Just because someone has plotted a system somewhere doesn't mean it will always be there. It just means that at the time the picture was taken, the system was there. In the event of war or even serious tensions, mobile SAMs might be dispersed to protect vital facilities. Mobile SSMs will be moved to new locations in order to foil their enemy's ability to target and destroy them. Once dispersed, all these mobile weapons systems will probably move around periodically just to foil their enemy's intelligence gathering efforts.

When you look at it that way, it's not worth it to obsess too much about the exact placement of many systems because whatever a source says it is, it probably won't actually be that. In that case, some sort of reasonably smart random placement scheme is probably just fine and may improve the replay value of the scenario.

[ComDev]

There is also a gazillion INST files shipping with the sim with countless airfields, radar networks, SAM networks, etc.

[ComDev]

Like, adding the true-to-life September 1985 SAM network on Kola is just a few mouse clicks:

(I created these INST files for my upcoming WW3-in-1985 battleset but work has been at a standstill for the last couple of years so we decided to release the INST files with the game for your simming pleasure! In addition to SAM and radar networks the INST files include all major airfields, naval facilities, major storages, strategic targets, etc. I think there is a version with the complete air OOB as well, including properly named aircraft with regiments and squadrons. Enjoy!)



Same for Centfront, September 1985:



And there is also an INST file with the 1986 Libyan facilities incl SAMs and radars for the 'El Dorado Canyon' scen that I was also going to make, but that is currently on halt too. Was even able to locate the exact tarmacts where the Tripoli airport Il-76s were located during the actual raid, and if I remember correctly I included those as well.

[ParachuteProne]

Thought the import inst was all airbases. I"ll have to play around more as soon as I can get some time.

[ComDev]

Remember that the Command devs were avid Harpoon II and Harpoon 3 scenario designers for more than 10 years, and Command is pretty much a scenario designing tool first and a simulator second [:D]

So the sim is full of neat tools we always wished we would have in Harpoon, including the ability to create and share INST files that allow users to add the basic building blocks in just a few mouse clicks. In Harpoon, you had to add each and every unit by hand every time, gah! [:'(]