Custom Callsigns in Mission Commander
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Sure, a GUNHOG should probably be an A-10.
JUMP a harrier
MUDHEN a strike eagle
NIGHTHAWK a stealth fighter
TOMCAT an F-14But what is a MAGNET? lol
PLASMA?
ZIPPER?
NIGHTMARE?
SATAN?
VOODOO?
VANDAL? MAKO, MONGO, CADDY, MAULER, MOHAWK, POACHER, GOBLIN, AMBER, BEAST, TROLL…… -
Sure, a GUNHOG should probably be an A-10.
JUMP a harrier
MUDHEN a strike eagle
NIGHTHAWK a stealth fighter
TOMCAT an F-14But what is a MAGNET? lol
PLASMA?
ZIPPER?
NIGHTMARE?
SATAN?
VOODOO?
VANDAL? MAKO, MONGO, CADDY, MAULER, MOHAWK, POACHER, GOBLIN, AMBER, BEAST, TROLL……These are all actually mds specific, but only used for training/home-station sorties. Tactical callsigns (IE those used in theater) would never follow such a convention. In fact they are USUALLY chosen by the LNO for a specific unit to the CAOC. LNO for those who don’t know is a liaison. Every community (F16s, E3s, A10s, etc…) will have someone assigned as an LNO at the CAOC. When the community is first brought into the theater (And periodically for OPSEC reasons) a callsign is “assigned” to that type of aircraft, but typically the LNO for that community is given the option to choose what the callsign will be, or at least provide some input.
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@Cloud:
This is Falcon, not RL!
C9
LOL. It feels like it sometime, apart from the Discard Mission option for when you crash into the ground!
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@Cloud:
No it won’t corrupt things.
But the flight names are aircraft specific. Like no F18 flight would ever have it’s flight name as Viper, that’s specific to the F16.According to the Monitoring Times (radio hobbyist publication), the VIPER mission call sign has been noted to be used by at least the following units:
VIPER CP RAF FLIGHT WATCH STATION-FALKLAND ISLANDS
VIPER OPS 1-3 AVN, ATKHB Hunter AAF Savannah GA
VIPER 01 C-12 Unk Unit at Andrews.
VIPER F-15 104th FG, MA ANG at Barnes ANGB
VIPER C-130 118th AW, TN ANG at Nashville
VIPER C-130H 158th AS GA-ANG
VIPER F-16C/D 120th FS, CO ANG at Buckley AFB
VIPER F-16CJ, 157 FS/169 FW South Carolina ANG McEntire ANGB SC
VIPER F-16 388th FW, Hill AFB, UT
VIPER F-16C/D 56th FW, Luke AFB, AZ
VIPER F-16C/D 111th FS TX ANG Ellington ANGB
VIPER F-16C/D 555th FS Aviano Italy
VIPER F-16 422nd Test Sqd, Eglin AFB FL
VIPER F-16C/D 57th FW Weapons School, Nellis AFB NV
VIPER F-16C/D 124th FS IA ANG Des Moines
VIPER F-16C/D 125th FS OK ANG Tulsa
VIPER UH-1 HMLA-169, MCAS Camp Pendleton, CA
VIPER F-16C/J 78th FS Shaw AFB SC
VIPER CH-142 CFB Shearwater
VIPER F-22 Langley AFB VAAs you can see, it’s not strictly exclusive to F-16 units, nor to any one particular Squadron or Wing.
Also TOMCAT has been noted to be used by various F-18 units at certain times as well.
Disclaimer: I do not have oodles of very expensive scanners and radio monitoring equipment in my basement so I’m just going to by publications available online. I cannot therefore not refute or confirm how accurate these radio logs are. Generally speaking though, military radio enthusiasts are very knowledgeable and do not tend to make stuff up.
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According to the Monitoring Times (radio hobbyist publication), the VIPER mission call sign has been noted to be used by at least the following units:
As you can see, it’s not strictly exclusive to F-16 units, nor to any one particular Squadron or Wing.
I never stated that they were exclusive to RL aircraft(s)/Squardrons or Wings. Strictly Falcon related.
C9
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@Cloud:
I never stated that they were exclusive to RL aircraft(s)/Squardrons or Wings. Strictly Falcon related.
C9Aaah. Okay, yes well that makes sense.
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Hey,
Short answer… no nothing to worry about.
Longer answer…
No you are not changing anything really. No string gets changed.
The callsign “text” strings are stored in an external file and should not be changed. This because there is also a link to the sound part.In every mission file there is a pointer to the string file (wch/idx). This pointer is just a number to the index of the string files.
If you change a callsign for a flight the only thing what happens is that this pointer is changed.
But this is only for the flight you change it for. You can’t change what callsign an aircraft will get (not with MC at least)Gr Falcas
I get bored with the usual callsigns for F-16’s (Falcon, Viper, Snake, Fury….)
Luckily there are about 150 other callsigns built-in to the game that you can choose, using Mission CommanderI’ve done this around 100 times with no problem.
However, a group I fly with doesn’t want to do it in their campaign because they worry it will somehow corrupt the campaign save. I believe it’s just changing the value of a string somewhere and it’s harmless.
So, is there any validity to this concern? Can changing callsigns corrupt the campaign?
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ah yes of course, that’s what I was trying to say. I imagined the number in parenthesis next to the callsign was its “ID number” that points to the string and sound file. It’s just changing the ID number and is completely benign.
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I make custom airforces in mission commander for campaign files that I play locally, and I’ve noticed some silliness about things, but it’s subjective.
migs are usually troll, stonecat is cool, but it usually ends up on strike eagles or rotary wing things for whatever reason…
satan is usually sead escorts of hornets but i could be wrong.
I’m building my memory of them as I go by but I haven’t seen any that really stand out. You should be able to pull a drop down somewhere in the frag, but hell, this game is a magician hiding inside of a broken rotary phone, so I don’t expect every feature that is commonplace nowadays.
Anytime I go to critique something, I remember how much talent and time it took to give me this, and I zip it.
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Automatic callsign assignment is done through the aircraft. (Not the mission)
Which block of callsigns will be used is set in the database. (Vehicle data)
You can’t change automatic assignment with MC.Gr Falcas
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@thereisnotime F15E gets assigned satan all the time when I frag missions – which actually ticks me off bc I like to imagine myself as fighting for good rather than evil. And yes I do think satan is a symbol of evil. I’ll actually go so far as to frag an identical mission, get a different callsign, and then delete the satan mission.
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I like to imagine myself as fighting for good rather than evil.
And what would your adversary think??
At any rate, Adversary/Enemy is one of the definitions of satan!!
C9
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@Cloud:
And what would your adversary think??
At any rate, Adversary/Enemy is one of the definitions of satan!!
C9
LOL well I’ll venture that he thinks he is an archangel and on the side of the righteous. Either that or he’s an unwilling cog in a fight he doesn’t care about, or finally, he’s a sociopath.
Anyway, my point wasn’t about whether I am being reasonable or not. My point was that if something ticks you off – like the callsign satan ticks me off – you can frag an identical mission and delete the one you don’t like.
Beyond that for some reason I am feeling quite chatty today and I find the definition debate about satan and words in general quite interesting. Satan, I am sure, has a multitude of definitions and meaning which I am likely to find compelling or valid in a variety of contexts. However, I think it’s fair to say that the concept of satan represents the embodiment of evil for a lot of people. And it’s me being associated with evil that I don’t like. You can embody evil in whatever name you like, Sith, Charles Manson, whatever, as long as I perceive the callsign as being largely associated with evil, it’s going to tick me off to be pushed into using it.
If a bunch of my real life friends put together an BMS squadron and called it Satan’s Crew, I am pretty sure I would not join or fly with them. Now if we were, fighting Hitler or Stalin in the day and in real life and I was assigned to a squadron with that for its nickname, I’d be pissed off but I’d fly (assuming I had the courage to be a combat pilot at all) because of the real life consequences. But here, in a game, where I get to call the shots – I’ll go ahead and do my workaround. And with regard to my real life friends, it’s more important to me to promote symbols of honor and truth than to promote one’s own badass-ness. I don’t know, maybe I’ve just seen enough bad things and cruel people in my day that for the most part I am no longer impressed by or want to be associated with people that want to assume the badass mentality? I’m not really sure. I sometimes like movies like John Wick even though the only thing that I think made that character sympathetic was he loved his wife and dog. Otherwise, he’s just a badass right? Anyway, a very complex set of issues regarding associations and symbology which for some reason today, I (and I am probably the only one) find this to be an interesting subject. I better go take a nap or meds!
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Guys, big, BIG problem: my BMS install is now haunted!!!
I made a massive package with “Devil”, “Satan”, “Nightmare”, “Spirit”, and “Ghost”
Now all my bullseye coordinates read 666 666 and the night vision is red instead of green!!! holyf**ingsht
Uninstalling BMS as we speak. Do not, I repeat, DO NOT mess with this stuff!!!
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hahah
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Hmmmm… Vandal… have ya looked that one up?
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@thereisnotime F15E gets assigned satan all the time when I frag missions – which actually ticks me off bc I like to imagine myself as fighting for good rather than evil. And yes I do think satan is a symbol of evil. I’ll actually go so far as to frag an identical mission, get a different callsign, and then delete the satan mission.